Catch My Breath
by xAlishaMichellex
Summary: What would you do if you found out your entire life was a lie? For Paige Knight, her world is about to be flipped upside down when she finds out the truth. In the process, she'll discover more about herself than she thought possible. In the end, it might just save her as well. Relationships will grow and friendships will be tested. Her life is about to change entirely.
1. Farewell

**A/N: **It's probably not the wisest idea to start a new story while working on one but this idea has been torturing me for a couple of weeks so I'm going to test it out.

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><p>Paige Knight, with her long jet black hair, shuffled through campus with her book bag slouching on one shoulder and her books teetering back and forth in her hands as she wandered across the quad to get to her dorm room. There were big tests she had to prepare for and she was in no mood to take the chance of failing. She hadn't moved here from England just to fail. They were the last exams of her second year of college – after they were done, she'd be able to catch her breath for just a beat and be able to plan out her summer plans.<p>

There was the big chance she'd just go home until the new school year approached, but going back to her estranged family wasn't the most appealing of ideas. Her roommate had invited her to go back home with her to New York, but that idea wasn't too great either considering Paige knew she'd stick out like a sore thumb. So option three was to just pick a place on the globe and go there. The notion was a ridiculous one but at least it was better than her other options.

Maneuvering around in her book bag for her door key, Paige was grateful when her roommate opened the door to help her. "Thanks, Summer."

"Whoa! You're the only person I know who actually takes these end-of-the-year exams so serious. Lighten up, Paige. You know you're going to pass. You're practically the smartest person in this entire place."

Setting her stuff down on her bed, Paige took a brief second to fall back onto her pillows and just stare at the ceiling. Summer, on the other hand, fiddled with her strappy shoes for a moment before applying the last ounce of makeup she could possibly fit on her face without looking like she caked it on. "Are you sure you won't come tonight?"

Sitting up straight, the British woman grabbed her zombified Hello Kitty stuffed animal and cradled it in her arms. "I've really got to study, Summer."

"Seriously? You've got this one in the bag, Paige." The gorgeous blonde perched herself at the end of her friend's bed. "Do you really have to study or are you avoiding Wade?"

There was the topic she certainly hadn't wanted to talk about, especially with the gossip queen. Wade Barrett had also moved from England with a scholarship and when he met Paige, they had instantly hit it off. But like most good things, their relationship hit a rough patch and ultimately ended when Paige refused to sleep with him and he wound up sleeping with someone else. He claimed that had she given him what he wanted they would have still been together.

For the longest time she believed it was her fault for why he dumped her but after Summer and a couple of other friends showed her how it in fact wasn't, the raven-haired woman became a recluse, refusing to get hurt again.

"I really do have to study," Paige brushed off the question pertaining to her ex like a professional, simply by opening up her history book and delving right into the first chapter. However, when she felt her friend's eyes on her, she had no choice but to look up at her. "Maybe I am trying to avoid Wade, is that a problem?"

"Paige, Wade's a dick for what he did and you have all your friends who will not let him come near you. I really think you should come and say goodbye to everyone before we part ways. You've been in social decline since the break up. I think you should let your hair down, get dolled up – well dolled up in your own way – and show everyone that you're okay."

What was it about the blonde's persistence? Every time she bugged her British friend to do something, the latter always caved to her requests. But this time, Paige knew that her friend was right. She had hidden herself away from the world for so long that it was time to come out for one last hurrah before everyone left.

"If I fail these exams, I'm going to murder you."

"Is that a yes?"

Letting out an annoyed sigh, the black-haired beauty put her head down in defeat. "It's a yes."

She heard Summer squeal in excitement, jumping up off her bed and rushing over to the conjoined closet to pick something out for her friend. After a couple of minutes, the blonde feasted her eyes on the most perfect outfit for her punk friend. "This!" Holding out a leather skirt that was way shorter than Paige liked to wear and a long sleeved crop top, the blonde sat it down on the bed for the girl to look at. "You've got killer legs."

"I'm also freakin' Casper. No one's going to notice the outfit." Her English accent grew more strong in that moment. "Maybe I shouldn't go."

"Oh no! You're going. You can even wear those cute spiked heels of yours too. I think they'd go perfect with this outfit. Come on, Paige. You only live once."

"You're actually quoting that rapper?" Rap music wasn't exactly the British born woman's forte. She was more into metal or hard rock. A lot of the people here didn't really understand her taste in music since it was all about Taylor Swift or Beyonce. But she refused to change that part of her life just to please people. California was way too preppy for her liking.

"Look, I know I can't change your mind on your musical taste but you have got to get with the program. Most people here don't listen to Bullet For My Valentine or In This Moment, but everyone knows who Drakeis. Just a little piece of advice." The blonde gave her friend a quick pat on her head before going back over to the full-length mirror to look over herself once again.

Emitting a sigh, Paige stared at the outfit on her bed. It was something she'd never remotely wear, but maybe it was the point. Maybe changing her appearance for one night would let people know that her break up with Wade hadn't got the better of her. "Summer, do you ever wonder why I am the way that I am?"

With a confused look on her made up face, the blonde in particular had turned back to her friend and tilted her head to the side. It was a trick question, she was aware of it, so she needed to be careful with how she answered. "You made it clear from day one that I wasn't allowed to ask about your history and why you and your family are… distant. So no, I don't."

In true friend fashion, Summer had abided by Paige's main request on not asking about her family history. She was way too messed up and didn't want to relive the nightmare of growing up in England with a dysfunctional family – dysfunctional was too nice a word to describe them – who didn't care if she were alive or dead.

"So I think for the summer I'm just going to draw a place out of a hat and go there."

"What? Paige, no, I told you that you are more than welcome to come back to New York with me."

"And I appreciate the offer, truly, but do you really think your kind would accept me?" Closing her eyes when she realized the mistake she just made, Paige shook it off. "That came out wrong. I mean, Summer your family is caviar and I'm… soup at best. Terrible analogy but you get the point. I don't want to go somewhere where I'm going to be judged."

"My parents are pretty judgmental and I don't want you have to subject yourself to something that makes you feel uncomfortable. If drawing a country or city out of a hat makes you happy, then that's all that counts. Hey, maybe I'll ditch my family and go with you."

As much as she would have liked the company, this was something that the British woman wanted to do on her own. "No. You've made plans. What about your little sister? She's counting on seeing you. I'll be fine. I promise." Feigning a half-hearted smile, Paige grabbed the clothes from her bed and rushed into their restroom to change.

She was in no way ready to see everyone, more specifically Wade – but this was going to be the last time she got to hang out with her friends and that was all that mattered. So, pushing aside all the thoughts from her childhood and her past relationship, Paige got ready and was surprised with how comfortable she felt in something so foreign to her. Maybe tonight wouldn't be as bad as she had thought.

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><p>Seth Rollins sat in the doctor's office with his dad and stepmother as they waited the results of the latter's blood test. Did he really want to be here? Not really. A beer seemed really good right about now, but he knew he needed to be his father's support if something showed up in Diane's blood.<p>

It wasn't that he didn't like Diane or that she was remotely cruel like most step parents, she was actually quite pleasant, it was just the fact that he resented her for marrying a man who had lost his wife seven months prior.

Playing on his cell phone, texting one of his good friends, Dean, Seth grew annoyed when he saw that he had a text from someone he really didn't want to hear from – the ex who had ripped his heart out of his chest. AJ Lee was quite a puzzle.

_I'm sorry. What more do you want from me? _That was message he read over and over, trying to think of witty reply to make her go away.

_Sorry doesn't justify the way you played me. Was that all I was to you? A project? Did it make you feel better about yourself that I was your charity work? You're no walk in the park yourself, AJ. _

It wasn't the best thing he could think of, but at least it was something. This was the most he had spoken to her in about a week. After hearing her laugh to her friends at the University about how he was just a project of hers, Seth obviously didn't take it well and broke up with her. God, he couldn't wait to get out of this town. The sooner he got into that college in California, the sooner he could be free from AJ.

Right as his phone dinged again, probably another text from AJ, Seth's attention went to the door when Diane's doctor came in and took a seat at her desk. She was pretty young to be a doctor, maybe late twenties early thirties. Her light brown hair was pulled back into a bun and her glasses were perched at the edge of her nose. "Mrs. Rollins, this is never an easy thing to tell a patient. It seems you have an extremely low white blood cell count… Now usually that could be from anything, but with your symptoms… You've got stage three leukemia."

Silence filled the room as the three people absorbed the information just handed to them. Feeling a huge lump in his throat, Seth obviously had to ask this question because his stepmother was too much of a mess and his father seemed to be in shock. "What are her options?"

"The best option for Diane is a bone marrow transplant but that means finding a match which could take a while. The best to get a match quickest is asking a family member." Doctor Boyd explained.

"She's an only child and her parents are dead. What else is there?" Seth asked, trying to find a way to fix this.

"Well then I guess starting treatment as quick as possible is going to be the best rate of success. But I have to be honest… with what stage she's in, there's no telling on whether it'll be enough to save her. There's no other family members? No uncles or aunts?"

"I don't think so. Diane?"

Lifting her head up, the ill woman wiped the tears from her eyes. "I gave up a daughter nineteen years ago… that's the only family. But I don't want to put this on her."

"If this is going to save your life, Diane, then you have no choice. Do you know where she is?" Seth queried, trying to be as sympathetic as possible. "I will personally go get her myself and fill her in."

"Seth, my dear sweet boy, I love your persistence, but it isn't fair to lay that kind of responsibility on someone who has never met me. When I gave her up, I believed I was doing what was best for her. She went to a loving family… Why take that away from her?" Her English accent assailed everyone's ears.

"With all due respect, Diane, if she's going to hold a grudge against you for giving her up and let you die, she's a shitty person, excuse the language. If you know where she is, you need to let someone know so we can get in contact with her."

After contemplating it, the woman let out a defeated sigh and pulled out a letter from a name that Seth hadn't recognized. "Who's Elena Knight?" Once again, Seth inquired.

"It's my daughter's adoptive mother. It seems like Paige, that's her name, is in California at some university. She hasn't been home since she moved there. It doesn't say much, just that Elena would appreciate it if I didn't contact Paige or herself ever again."

"Okay, I'll do some digging around to see if I can find where this Paige Knight girl is. You're going to be fine, Diane. Dad, I promise you, I will get Paige here to save her life." Hopping up from his seat, Seth rummaged through his pockets to find his cell phone. Dialing a number he really didn't want to use, he swallowed his pride anyways. "Hey, it's Seth, I need a favor."

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><p>Paige was surprisingly having a wonderful time at the party, indulging herself with some rum and dancing. When she perused the room, there was no sign of Wade Barrett, which made it even better. The Paige that she used to be had seemingly disappeared for the time being.<p>

"You're really going to do that, Paige? That sounds like a lot of fun but also scary. You definitely have to let me know how it goes." Emma, her good friend from Australia, spoke up, but was so hammered. Her words were completely slurred.

"I'll take lots of pictures. I'm going to sit before I sweat off this makeup. Pardon me." After excusing herself, Paige wasn't all too shocked to find that no one was sitting on the couch, which was fine by her. The thought of sitting next to a bunch of people in such a close proximity wasn't exactly her cup of tea.

"I'm surprise you're here, Paige." The British accent caused her to jerk her head up at none other than her ex boyfriend. With a devious smirk on his face, he pointed the spot beside her. "May I?"

"Go ahead." Grabbing her phone from her purse, Paige scrolled down to the one name in her phone who she knew would come through for her. _Wade's here and he's found me. I'm sitting on the couch. Please come and rescue me._

"You look good. How long have you been dodging me now? Four, five months? Look, I've been wanting to talk to you. About how I treated you. I just want to say that I'm sorry."

The inflection in his voice said otherwise or maybe it was the alcohol getting to her. Either way, she didn't know what to think. "You're sorry for what exactly? For cheating on me because I wouldn't sleep with you? Or for trying to make it seem like it was my fault that you cheated?"

"For both, actually. I've been thinking a lot about you. I know summer is approaching but maybe when school comes back next semester we could try again. Just think about it. That's all I'm asking. And if you don't want to go back down that path, I understand. But can we at least be civil or maybe even friends?"

Before she had time to answer, Summer came over and stared down the man. "Get away from my friend, you douche. Paige doesn't want anything to do with you after what you did." For being little, the blonde was definitely a feisty thing. "Go!" She waved him off which he laughed at. When he was out of sight, she took a seat next to her friend and grabbed a hold of her hand. "You okay?"

"Yeah… He apologized and asked me if I wanted to start things back up."

"You told him no, right?"

"I didn't get the chance to. You came to my rescue. Thank you, by the way." Resting her head on her friend's shoulder, Paige scanned the room. Her good mood had fizzled out due to her meeting with Wade. "I think I'm going to go. I really need to study."

Patting her friend's thigh, Summer stood and then helped her buzzed friend to her feet. "Okay, I understand. Thank you for coming though. You did have fun. And… a lot of guys were checking you out. You were a hit."

"I don't know about that." Her bashful side came out. The thought of guys being infatuated with her seemed odd to consider. Summer was always the one to get hit on, but never Paige. After hugging her drunk friend, Paige sauntered off on her own back to the other side of campus, back to her dorm room.

Once she was alone, the young student did exactly as she said and studied until she fell asleep, still dressed up and everything.


	2. Road Trip

_**A/N: **__Still dipping my toes in the pond with this one… I have a lot planned, I just don't know how inspired I'll be in the next few chapters._

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><p>Feeling like he had been ran over by a bus, Seth rolled over on a couch he wasn't very familiar with, holding his head in pure agony. He didn't remember drinking that much. That was the one thing he loathed about his drinking skills – he quickly lost his memory after about his second drink.<p>

Where was he?

Looking around the place, the Iowa native couldn't put his finger on why it looked so vaguely familiar – but when a flashback of over a year ago came to him of having to meet up with a former friend of his because he had something for him, it all became so clear to him. He was at Roman Reigns. Yes, now he remembered. That's who he had called.

It was all coming back to him in little flashes. They met up at the bar, drank a little—or in Seth's case a lot—and came back here because none of them were in any position to drive home. But it appeared that Roman was hardly affected by their booze filled night.

"The fuck?" Seth rambled incoherently, running his fingers through his two-toned hair, not surprised by the fact that it was tangled.

"Morning, Seth." Roman came out of his kitchen with a glass of water and a couple of aspirins. "Here." Not even up for arguing about this—because Seth was way too hung over to put up a fight—the Iowa native took the items without hesitance and sucked them both down, before falling backwards against Roman's leather couch. "Here's the info you wanted too."

"Thanks." Snatching the information from his old friend's hand, Seth made to stand to his feet, but quickly sat back down when the room continued spinning. "Guess I'm stuck here for at least an hour."

"I know I'm not your favorite person but do you want to explain to me why you need to find this Paige chick? Plus, I have some stuff I would like to get off my chest. I know you're still angry because I wasn't there when everything went down two years ago and I know that you can't forgive me for not being a good friend, but how long are you going to be angry with me?" The well-built Samoan took a seat on the far side of the couch, away from Seth.

"Roman, you were one of my best friends. When my Mom died, you were there, no questions asked. But when Lizzy passed, my baby sister, the only thing I had left of my Mom, you bailed. It was like me and Dean had stopped becoming a priority the minute you met Layla."

Hanging his head low, allowing his hair to cascade down, Roman let out a frustrated sigh. How many times was he going to have to go over this until Seth forgave him? It was his and Layla's anniversary. How could he bail? For the nineteen-year-old college student, focusing too much on the past was beginning to take its toll on him.

For, Seth, however, he was a nineteen-year-old who was angry at the world because of the bad luck he had seemingly stumbled upon for almost a decade. He was nine when his mother passed in a tragic car accident. Then shortly after, very shortly after, his father met Diane and the two were married after being together for four months.

But Lizzy's death had hit him the hardest at the age of seventeen. She was a thirteen year old who worshipped the ground her big brother walked on and the two were inseparable. It was the last piece he had of his mother. His father, of course, took it rough and Diane too was devastated, but Seth was absolutely inconsolable.

Counting on his two best friends to get him through the tragic time, Seth was only comforted by Dean Ambrose when Roman only offered his condolences and skipped the funeral altogether. You could say Seth was a very forgiving person but when it came to Roman bowing out on something important, he wasn't exactly ready to make amends.

"Can you at least tell me who this Paige chick is and why you need to find her? When I went to my cousin with your request he gave me crazy eyes."

"I'm sorry that it was an inconvenience." Seth sarcastically apologized. "This was important though. Paige is Diane's biological daughter." When he saw Roman's expression, he was still able to know what he was asking. "Don't ask me. My father and I got informed this the other day when the doctor told her she has cancer and that her best chance of survival is finding a donor."

"So you're just going to go to California and find her? Then what? What if she doesn't know she's adopted? You're going to completely change her entire life and then ask her to come back to Iowa to save the woman who gave her up. The odds don't look good."

"Not that it's any of your business, but I have to try. I owe my dad this and you know why. He's never forgiven me. If he loses Diane, I'm afraid he'll get the impression that there's nothing left for him even though I'm right there. To sum it up: If he loses Diane, I lose my dad." Clearing his throat, Seth looked down at his feet, trying to avoid that damn look that he knew Roman was giving him at that moment. The look that said he needed to stop blaming himself, that it wasn't his fault.

Stretching his arm out, the Samoan man offered a reassuring pat on the back of his former friend. If the Iowa native was truly mad at him, he wouldn't have came to him for help or remotely opened up like this. "I know you don't want to hear it, so I won't say it. I'm just going to say this… Time heals all wounds. Seth, you're only as strong as you can be until you have to break because you can't carry the weight of all your pain. It's okay to be vulnerable. When Lizzy died, you sucked it up and held it in even though it killed you to not be able to mourn her. That wasn't fair to you."

"Can we not talk about that? Besides, you're two years late on being a friend. Why start now?" This time when he stood up, there was no dizziness and no queasiness. This was definitely a sign that it was time for him to leave before things got even worse between them.

"Because, despite it all, I still consider you my friend and I don't care how girly it sounds, I care about what happens to you. And I know that you don't want to talk to me about whatever is going on in your life, but if you decide that Dean can't understand, I'm here."

Instead of telling him that'll never happen, Seth simply gave him a nod of his head before exiting the man's apartment. He couldn't focus on Lizzy, his grief or even Roman's attempt of being a friend. There was a woman whose life was in his hands and that meant doing the very drastic thing of driving to California to pick up what could possibly save her life.

How would he go about it? Well that was something he would work out on the drive up there. In a few hours, he'd be making the very long trip and he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

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><p>After a stressful day of final examinations, Paige was super relieved when she was able to meet up with Summer and Emma after a café a couple blocks away from the university, wearing the most gorgeous smile she had shown them since meeting them.<p>

It was the first time in a while where she felt at peace in her life – maybe it was because she knew she had passed and that elated her. Maybe it was because summer vacation had officially started and she didn't have to stress about anything for three months. Or maybe it was because she wasn't planning on seeing her parents and it relieved her more than anything.

"Look at you all happy," Summer greeted her best friend with a hug before taking her seat. "I take it you passed your exams?"

"Yes. Thank the Lord. Now I can have a relaxing summer vacation without worrying about whether or not I'm going to have to repeat a course next year." The raven-haired woman fidgeted a bit with her black-painted fingernails before looking up at her blonde friends. "What?"

"Are you sure that you don't want to come home with me? I know we talked about this last night, but I can't fathom why you'd want to go out on some big adventure without someone with you." Just like she had been the night before, Summer was very persistent when she wanted something.

"Guys, I know I'm still relatively young, but I can take care of myself. Emma, you're going back home to Australia and Summer, you're going back home to New York. I don't want to go home. I never had the luxury of being welcomed home with open arms. And I'm okay with that. You guys need to spend this time with your family because it is super important to you."

Both the blonde girls stared at each other with quizzical eyes. When it came to her family and her past, Paige was extremely vague on details, which of course made her friends all the more curious. But not wanting to push her to open up, they would always leave her alone. This time, however, they were a bit surprised with the little information she did divulge.

It was a thing where Paige knew her friends were very much aware of her disconnection with her parents. She never talked about them. They never sent her anything in the mail. They never talked on the phone. It was pretty cut and dry.

Sitting there listening as her friends carried on about what they planned to do when they got back home, the British woman grew a bit envious. They could go home to their families and fill them in on their year and all the exciting things they did. She didn't get to do that. Or she didn't want to. At any point, she was positive her parents would love to see her, but after what happened, she didn't want to see them.

Why would she want to when they said she made everything up? That nothing happened? Especially when they witnessed it?

But she didn't want to focus on her family and all their flaws. She wanted to put her attention on the exciting summer ahead of her. She couldn't wait to get away from California and all her troubles. Plus, she had to think about whether or not she wanted to start things back up with Wade. While he seemed sincere in his apology, the fact that he had cheated on her once proved how much he lacked faithfulness.

Did she really want to be that girl who takes a guy back after being cheated on? She had always said if someone wasn't faithful, that was it. There wouldn't be a second chance. But something about how he said he had been thinking about her and how he didn't want to rush her into making a decision grated at her.

All the while she was well aware of the judgment that would be cast upon her had she decided to give it another go. But that wasn't their business. That was also why she wanted it to just be herself for the summer so that she couldn't be swayed by her friends telling her all the reasons to not get back together with him.

"I'm probably crossing the line here, but what is it about your parents that makes you cringe when someone brings them up to you?" Emma inquired, taking one for the team, since it was originally Summer who had wanted to ask the question.

"You are crossing the line. I made it clear to the both of you that my past and my family life is something I want to forget. I don't want to talk about it. And it's not because I don't think you guys can't handle it, it's because it's still hard for me. Can we just drop the subject entirely?"

Grabbing a glass of water that had been delivered to her by the waitress—probably some time during her reverie—Paige didn't bother to make eye contact as she sucked down the cold beverage. She hated that she had to be so harsh on her friends, but sometimes she had to be to make her point.

She had told them several times to not bring that subject up and they always started asking questions. It was just easier on everyone if only she knew of the secrets her family harbored. It was the biggest secret she had ever kept and if she told anyone, they would feel sorry for her, which she didn't want.

As soon as her senior year of high school hit, she started applying for colleges out of England. When she got accepted into USC, she had promised herself to start over and forget about the skeletons in her closet, so to speak. Of course when she made to leave, her parents tried preventing her from doing so, claiming that no one would love her if she tried telling the "sob story" she concocted.

They called her "damaged goods" as she walked out the door – had she not been through hell and back, the remark probably would left her a ball of mess on her front lawn, but because she was so anxious to leave and never come back, she didn't let the remark deter her. She gladly skipped to the taxi, happy for the first time in years.

This place had been her second chance of having a meaningful life without the giant abyss waiting to suck her in looming. And her friends were absolutely amazing, even though they weren't exactly the kind of people she had surrounded herself with. But she wouldn't trade them for anything.

"So… Dolph had the nerve to tell me that we should see other people while were away this summer. Does he not know that he's never going to find someone better than me?" Flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder, the blonde nonchalantly shrugged off her offense. "I mean, not to tune my own horn or anything, but I'm kind of a big deal in this town."

"Someone has a big head – careful, it might burst from that egotistical brain of yours," Emma remarked.

As the two went back and forth, Paige found herself laughing at the two of them. They were really a weird group and they were such opposites. Summer was the sexy, rich girl. Emma was the very spirited girl who you never had a dull moment with. And Paige was the dark girl with the dark past. In the end, they all got along and it wasn't forced. While it would be good to get away from them for the summer, it didn't mean Paige wouldn't miss them. In fact, they were the closest thing she had to a family.

* * *

><p>Shoving a bag in his car because he didn't plan on being gone for too long, Seth was surprised when his good buddy Dean showed up at the blue with a bag of his own things. "You're not going alone. Besides, we can take turns driving. Not to mention, I want to scout out California. There might be some major babes there."<p>

"Dean, I'm not visiting. I'm going there to pick up this Paige chick and to bring her back."

"Maybe you should try calling her first so that it's not a wasted trip. I hate to agree with Roman, but going in there without a plan is going to backfire on you. Even if she knows she's adopted doesn't mean she'll agree to meeting Diane."

They both hopped into Seth's Tahoe, Dean drumming on the dashboard in front as he waited for the two-toned haired man to start up the vehicle. True, there was nothing else more he wanted than to accompany his friend on his trip; he was mainly there for moral support in case Seth backed out.

"I have a plan. I'm going to find her and casually spring it on her that she's adopted. Diane gave me the letter that she sent about a year ago, explaining why she did what she did. The girl has to have a big heart. I refuse to believe that if I told her that her real mom was dying that she'd let her. I know I wouldn't."

"Dude, you need to remind yourself that just because you have an idea of how a scenario is going to go doesn't mean that it's actually going to pan out that way. I've always been a realist. Shit happens, Seth. So while you're there thinking that everything is going to work out, let me try to brace you for the big picture. Now we have a long drive so you can't necessarily avoid this either."

Rolling his brown eyes, the driver just shook his head, becoming more and more annoyed from the passenger. He seriously wished he could have just done this on his own without the hassle and the negativity from anyone else.

"You're driving to the other side of the US to find a guy who you don't know and never met to tell her that she's adopted. Then you're going to turn around and tell her that her biological mom is dying and that she needs a donor to save her life. What good is going to come from that? Please explain this to me." Dean ran a hand through his shaggy light brown hair.

After an hour of going over his plan, Seth had convinced himself that it would all work out because something good had to be coming his way since he had only been cursed with back luck. Dean, on the other hand, still wasn't convinced that going there to a more-than-likely failed attempt was the greatest way to spend their summer.

"Whoa, this Paige chick is hot. I found her profile on _Facebook._" Dean shoved his phone in Seth's face, causing more than enough hazards to have an accident. When the driver took the phone and briefly glanced at the girl's profile picture, he noticed something from the solemn expression on her face. She looked like she had had her fair share of demons, much like him.

That made him all the more curious. What was her story? And more importantly, would she actually agree to do this big thing for someone whom she had never met? He had no idea if it was a so-called wasted attempt, but something in his gut told him to continue on. And so he did.


	3. The Truth

**A/N: **I'm still not sure if I should continue with this. Anyways, Merry Christmas to you all.

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><p>After a couple of days on the road, Seth and Dean were completely exhausted by the time they reached California – not to mention, the former had learned way too much information about his buddy more than he wanted to. In a random conversation they were having when they were driving through Colorado, Dean happened to over share about the time he had fantasized about Seth's step mom that he had to relieve the tension in the most pleasuring way.<p>

Now the image was officially lodged in his head.

Upon checking themselves into their hotel for the night, Seth picked it out since it was close to the university, the two-toned man took a second to go over how he was going to go about this. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought much about it on the drive up there like he originally planned. But since Dean happened to come along and provided a much bigger distraction than need be, Seth never got the chance.

Pulling out his cell phone, he took a deep breath before dialing the number Roman had managed to acquire for him – although he didn't want to be grateful for the help, he owed him a thank you at least. When the rings assailed his ears, he held in a breath until he heard the click and a young girl answer.

"_Hello?" _Her strong British accent was absolutely heavenly, much different than Diane's.

"Hello, is this Paige Knight?" It was obvious he was nervous about this phone conversation and the look on Dean's face as he stared at the man on the phone gave it away.

"What are you doing?" Dean whispered to his friend, suddenly very curious. "I thought you were just going to find her in person?"

Thankfully, Seth had covered the receiver part of his phone otherwise Paige would have heard that last part. Putting it back to his ear, he cleared his throat when she answered that she was the person he had been looking for. "My name is Seth Rollins. I feel like a dick for contacting you in this manner, but I've drove from Iowa to seek you out about something urgent. Do you think we could meet up to talk in person?"

There. The hard part was over with. Oh, who was he kidding? This was the easy part. Getting her to meet up just so he could break the news to her was not the part he was looking forward to. As he waited for her reply—obviously she was contemplating it—he drummed his foot against the floor, trying to occupy himself.

_"Um, you can see how uncomfortable it would be for me to meet up with some stranger. You can't just tell me this over the phone?"_

The good old evasive routine – Seth was all too familiar with that. There were countless times he would avoid someone by coming up with some lame excuse that something came up. Or just a mere couple of weeks ago after he found out about AJ's betrayal and instead of being up front with her, told her that Dean needed him.

"Look, I know how this comes off and you're probably concerned by the fact that I got your number, which I will explain, but this is something that can't be talked about over the phone. If you feel that uncomfortable meeting up, bring someone with you – a friend or your boyfriend even."

Laughing into the other end of the line, Paige said, "_Boyfriend? Yeah right. But okay, I'll bring my friend Summer. She's pretty good at calling a person out on their bullshit. You better hope you're not one of them."_

"Should I be scared of your friend though? It sounds like she's a handful." He was trying to make a joke, but it didn't turn out to be that funny at all, especially when it wasn't laughter from Paige's end – it was nothing but awkward silence. "Okay, where do you think we should meet?"

"_There's a café a couple of blocks from the university called _The Sunshine Café_. Meet me there in about thirty minutes, okay?"_

"Sounds good."

Before went to hang up the phone, he stopped when she asked, _"Seth, should I be worried about why you're getting in contact with me?"_

Letting out a sigh, he put his head down. "Honestly, I don't know how you're going to react and I'm only the messenger, so please keep that in mind. I'll see you in a little bit. Look for the man with two colors in his hair."

"_I like you already. Look for the ghastly white gal. I guess I'll see you soon."_

Then she clicked off on her line and Seth was left there left with a decision. How the hell was he supposed to go about it?

* * *

><p>Extremely nervous as she sat at the table with Summer supportively by her side, Paige kept watching the entrance for a two-toned man. She had no idea what the hell this was about. To her knowledge, everything was completely fine in her more than average life. She had never done anything remotely rebellious to get her into trouble either.<p>

Biting her black-clad fingernails, the raven-haired woman couldn't even sip her tea without waves of nausea hitting her – there was an inkling in the pit of her stomach that told her shit was about to get real and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"This better be good," Summer, on the other hand, was indulging herself in her Caesar salad, topped with fat free ranch dressing. "You're nervous as shit. It better not be some thing of you owe the government a couple thousand and he's here to collect type of thing. Because they have to bill you first."

Rolling her eyes at her friend's comments, the British woman covered her face with her hands. The dramatic scenario of Summer's seemed more appealing than something completely out of the ordinary. Truth be told, she could sit there and ponder it while she waited on Seth or she could brace herself for whatever was to come from this.

"Seriously? You think they would send someone to give me a warning instead of just arresting me? Think, Summer, think. Your logic baffles me sometimes."

"Hey, I've seen it happen. Okay? My cousin had a friend who had a friend who got visited by some mysterious guy at the shopping mall. It didn't look pleasant."

Not having much time to say anything, not that she really cared, Paige's heart dropped when a guy with two colors in his hair came through the door. And with a handsome friend. This had to have been Seth. Many guys in California didn't stand out and he certainly did. He smelled like a tourist. Standing to her feet, the raven-haired woman gulped when he spotted her, and waved him over.

Dean, wasn't one for introductions, and instead took a seat opposite the blonde and played with the toothpick he'd been sucking on. Folding his arms across his chest, he noticed blue eyes just glaring at him. "Did you want something, sweetheart?"

"Yeah, take a shower. I'm starting to smell just like you."

"This is Dean – he's a wise ass, but also my best buddy. I'm guessing this is Summer?" Seth inquired, hardly focusing on the blonde woman glaring daggers at his friend. Paige, however, was a different story. She was absolutely gorgeous in a modest way.

"Yeah," the woman quickly responded, wanting to get down to business. "So what is this urgent news that you have for me?" She sat back down in her seat, Seth opposite her.

Pulling the letter from Diane out of his back pocket, he pushed it toward her on the tabletop but kept his hand over it. "I just want you to know that I'm sorry. But you need to read this first before I can tell you anything else."

Snatching the letter from underneath his hands, Paige curiously opened it, cautious not to rip it, her eyes bulging instantly.

_My dearest daughter,_

_If you're reading this then that means that you've been told the hard truth that you're adopted. There are no words to describe how awful and painful it is to write this to you. Now that you're old enough, I feel like you deserve to know the truth. _

_I was sixteen when I got pregnant with you in the most unholy way – I was into drugs, just barely staying alive. You were conceived while I was high and in no way ready to be a mother. But when I found out, I quit because you deserved to have a life that you never asked for. I was well aware that I was no way capable of taking care of another life when I could barely take care of myself. I was living on the streets and didn't want you having to endure that life._

_I don't regret birthing you. The only regret I have is not giving myself the chance to love you. But when I picked your parents, they seemed like nice lads who really wanted a child. And I knew they could love you much better than I could. They could provide you a life that I knew I could never. For your best interest, I gave you a new life with a new family._

_There's not a day, though, that goes by when I don't think about what if. What if I could have given you the life you deserved? What if I turned out to be a good mom? It sounds creepy but I found you on that social networking site and you're beautiful. You look like a healthier version of me. Please, whatever you do, don't be mad at your folks. If you should be angry with anyone, it should be me._

_I know this probably won't help with what you're feeling and I can't even imagine that, but I hope you understand why I did what I did. I know we've never met and we may never, but I want you to know that I do love you with all of my heart. I kept your bracelet from the hospital with the name I gave you: Britani. _

_It's probably a lost cause but please reach out to me. I'd love to hear what you'd have to say._

_Love,  
>Diane<em>

"What the actual fuck? What is this?" Paige pushed the letter away, feeling infected from the content. "Is this why you came – to tell me that I'm adopted? You're sick." Putting her hands up in defense mode, the raven-haired shoved the piece of paper over to her friend, while trying to collect herself. She was never one to show any form of emotion, but this was the one time she wanted to break.

"I'm sorry, Paige. I figured it would be better if you read it before I delved into things."

"Things? Things? I'm adopted by shitty parents. The bitch of it is that this woman could've given me so much more than those people. And there's more we have to discuss? What do you want to talk about, Seth? My adoption? The fact that my birth mum never took into consideration how this would affect me if I found out? The fact that she never loved me? What else is there?"

All eyes from the strangers in the café were on them – some were intrigued and some were mortified by all the shouting. When Summer put a comforting arm around her friend, Paige rested her head against her shoulder. "Why did you come here?" She asked in a much more subdued voice.

"Diane is my step mom and she's sick with terminal cancer unless—" He was cut off by Paige.

"—They can find a donor. So the only reason she wants anything to do with me after nineteen years is to save her life? Well you wasted a trip, Seth. I'm not going to save a woman who never wanted me. I don't care if it's the 'Christian' thing to do. Tell Diane I hope she goes to hell when she goes."

With that, Paige stood to her feet and exited the café, leaving the three people to suck in the silence now circling around them. "Please tell her I'm sorry, Summer. If she changes her mind, give her this." Seth slid over his information to the blonde. "I know she's hurting."

"You don't know a damn thing. You travel for several hours to meet up with a girl, only to tell her she's adopted and that her birth mom needs her to be a donor. Pretty shitty thing, don't you think? She is right. You wasted a trip."

Mimicking what Paige had done several minutes ago, Summer went to leave but was stopped by the guy who had been silent the entire time. "He's trying to do something good. Your friend, whether she likes it or not, could be the reason Diane lives or dies. And from what I witnessed here, she has a good heart with a lot of bruises on it. This could heal her a bit, don't _you _think?"

"It's her choice to make. I'll respect it either way. But if she does change her mind—and she rarely does—I'll give her this, Seth. But don't contact her again or you'll have to deal with me." Bumping her shoulder against Dean's, the blonde hastily left.

Feeling like complete and utter shit, the longhaired man just sat there in the seat, taking in what had just happened. He had not only broken the heart of an innocent nineteen-year-old but he had ultimately failed his dad.

* * *

><p>It rarely rained in the summer in Los Angeles, but it seemed fitting when Paige found herself walking in it as she ignored all the calls and texts from Summer and Emma. She just didn't want to deal with any of this. Her whole life was a complete lie and her birth mom had the audacity to seek out her help because she was dying.<p>

How was that fair to her?

Wiping her eyes as she continued on her way, Paige pulled out the letter that she had managed to take with her – she thought about ripping it up or setting it on fire, but instead she found herself re-reading it on a park bench.

Even if it were true about Diane not being able to take care of Paige, why didn't she find her earlier? Why didn't she attempt to speak to her once she got her shit together? Instead, the raven-haired was raised by parents who didn't care about her, who never protected her.

All of that—everything that happened to her—could have been avoided. And she was angry. She was so fucking angry, it hurt. When someone took a seat beside her, she didn't even flinch. She didn't care. Her emotions were shot to shit.

"You shouldn't be out in the rain. You want me to drive you back to your dorm?" When she didn't reply, he continued on. "Paige, Seth's just trying to do the right thing. Imagine how he felt actually volunteering to do this for Diane. She originally said no, but he forced her into it. He's trying to… repent."

"No offense, Dean, but go away. I don't want to talk to you or anyone. I just want to be left alone."

"No one wants to be alone, Paige. You seem like you're teetering on whether or not you want to do this and I'm not here to sway your decision. I just wanted to check on you when I saw you walking. If you change your mind, we're at the Equinox, room 217."

Giving her a condoling pat on her leg, Dean brushed off his leather jacket, even though it was completely soaked and headed for Seth's Tahoe, speeding away from the conflicted woman.

* * *

><p>Playing with his guitar, Seth Rollins' mood was a somber one. How was he supposed to tell his dad that Paige thing was a no-go? He could imagine the tone in his voice and how disappointed his father would in him once again. All he was was a failure.<p>

Preparing himself to dial the number with shaky hands—he wanted to get this conversation done with—he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Getting up off the floor, he took his time. He figured Dean had his hands full with the beer he went out to get. When he pulled opened the door, he was surprised to find a soaked Paige Knight standing there with the letter in one hand and her phone in the other.

Allowing her entry, she shivered when the warmth of the room hit her skin and he pulled a blanket from his bed to give to her, which she gratefully accepted. "Thank you." Looking at her feet, she sighed. "If I do this, what'll happen? Will she live?"

"They have to make sure you're a match first. I'm not sure what happens next. What changed your mind?"

"I haven't… completely. But Dean said something to me about an hour ago in the park that kind of got to me. I'll go to Iowa with you, to meet her. That doesn't mean I'll go through with being a donor or whatever. And I'm not doing this for her. I'm doing this because I deserve to know where I come from. She owes me that much. If I feel she's sincere, I'll help. If not, I'm gone." She sniffled, fighting back the tears.

"Thank you." The Iowa man wanted to hug the woman in an act of being grateful but instead he kept his cool and nodded his head. "It's okay if you want to cry about this. You've kind of been devoid of weeping emotion since I told you."

"I don't cry. I cried enough when I was fourteen. I'm pretty sure there are no more tears left in me. And even if I did, I wouldn't in front of you. I don't know you. So when do we leave?" She casually changed the subject so that she wouldn't have to answer any questions.

"Tomorrow. I figured—had you agreed initially—that it would be enough time for you to gather your things and for you to get some sleep."

"One condition, Seth. I'm bringing Summer with me. I called her before I came here to let her know I was going and she wants to tag along to make sure you and Dean don't go creeper mode on me."

"Fine by me. Can't say Dean will be thrilled, seeing as your friend kind of judged him and I hard. But the more, the merrier. You want me to call a cab for you?"

"Summer's actually waiting for me. She drove me here. You didn't think I'd come here by myself without backup, did you?" They both shared a laugh. Handing him back his blanket, Paige blew out air from her lips in an awkward manner. "Thanks for the blanket. I'll see you tomorrow."

Simply nodding, Seth watched as she made her exit. There was definitely something intriguing about her that made him all the more curious. Her mysterious remarks and dark exterior made him wonder what exactly caused her to be that way. One thing was for sure. The summer just took an interesting turn.


	4. Bonding

**A/N: **Thanks for all the support so far. I'm still easing my way in to make sure I want to continue so I don't leave you guys hanging like I've been known to do in the past.

* * *

><p>"Why does Summer have to come?" Dean complained as they waited on both the blonde and the raven-haired woman to join them at their meeting space. It had been blindingly obvious that he didn't show a great amount of affection towards the judgmental woman just from their one meeting. He wasn't particularly fond of her type to begin with: Haughty, rich girl who was only getting by on her looks.<p>

If he could bet the gods above that him and her couldn't go one hour without insulting each other just so he could get out of this ridiculous predicament, he would have. But alas, he didn't get much of a say in this considering it was Seth's car and he couldn't necessarily kick her out without permission.

"That's the only way Paige will come. It'll be fine, man. They'll sit in the back and you won't have to make any conversation with her."

"She's going to be around all summer, Seth. We're bound to cross paths at some point. You saw how she silently critiqued me." Rubbing his temples in pure frustration, the shaggy haired man glanced in the side mirror and saw the two women approaching, their luggage in tow. "The she-devil's here. And she's brought her whole closet with her apparently. What the fuck?"

Hopping out of the passenger's side to get a better view, Dean Ambrose leaned up against the side of the car and folded his arms as he watched Paige with her two bags of belongings and Summer with her trunk-on-wheels and her big duffel bag on her opposite shoulder, struggling to drag the gigantic thing behind her.

Once she made it to the back of Seth's vehicle, she dropped her stuff and looked at Ambrose. "Do you mind?" She gave a sweetly sick smile before admiring her nails. "Oh dear, these things look terrible."

He wasn't sure if she was doing that on purpose just to get a rise out of him or if she was actually serious. All he knew was that she'd only been there a mere thirty seconds and he already wanted to rip her head off. Taking his dear, sweet time rounding the vehicle, he stopped and looked at her. "Sweetheart, Iowa's a way different ballgame than New York – I doubt you need this much clothes."

"Oh, that is not my clothes. That has my makeup and hair supplies in it. Even if we're going to Losersville, Iowa, I still want to look good. Okay, honey?" Then she put her hand up to his face to prohibit him from speaking any further.

Rolling his eyes, the man put her things in the back of the vehicle without even breaking a sweat and then got back inside, folding his arms in an annoyed manner. He was going to kill Seth when he got the chance.

His friend, however, was helping Paige with her things, Dean watching the way they barely spoke to one another – maybe it was because the woman was way too nervous because she was about to meet her birth mom. It was easy to tell that neither of them wanted to be there. They were both just doing their part for the sake of Diane.

When one of the back doors opened, Dean sighed because he knew who it was. Playing around on his cell phone as a sure way to ignore the annoying woman, who was staring daggers his way, the man almost got away with it when she loudly cleared her throat to get his attention. "What? Am I breathing too loudly for the princess?"

"No, but your presence is nothing to miss. I was going to thank you for the help that was all. Do you always get so rude with people?" Adjusting the beanie on her head, Summer Rae then pulled the seatbelt over her and snapped it in place.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do. I have a sucky attitude. But you'll find that out a lot this summer." He retorted.

"I can hardly wait," the blonde sarcastically said.

Before they could carry on with their banter, their friends hopped into the vehicle – Paige gripped onto her leather jacket for dear life and Seth wasted little time shoving the key into the ignition and listened as his car roared to life.

Peeling out of the parking lot, he soon hit the freeway, the deafening silence billowing the air; it made him uncomfortable having to listen to his thoughts when there could have been somewhat of a conversation going on.

"So AJ texted me to ask about you, Seth. I thought things were over with you guys." Dean casually brought it up.

"We are over. I told her I didn't want to see her again." The two-toned man defended himself, staring into the rearview mirror to see the curiosity level of the girls in the back. Summer was on the edge of her seat, leaving Seth to believe that she loved juicy gossip. That made him want to roll his eyes. And Paige had a very stoic expression on her face – he was unable to read her and it bothered him a bit. She was a hostile mystery, to say the least.

"Well according to these very descriptive text messages, she hasn't got the memo. She says and I quote, _'He's the best thing to have ever happened to me. I know I screwed it up but he'll forgive me because he'll realize that I'm the best thing to have happened to him. When two people love each other the way we do, they don't go their separate ways. They fight. I'll fight for him. Dean, please help him see that he's made a mistake. Please?'_"

"I'm not budging. Why should I forgive her for doing that to me? If she can't even come to terms with why we broke up then there's no hope for her or for us ever repairing what was broken." Nonchalantly, Seth shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what to do in this type of situation. Usually when it was over, it was over. He never had to say it twice.

But AJ Lee was apparently a different story – she seemed pretty normal at first but now he was seeing just how crazy she could be when things didn't go her way.

"Why don't you just tell the poor girl that you're standing by your decision and that you can't forgive her? If she doesn't get the _memo _then, then I would say you're screwed." The British woman offered some wisdom, not sure if it was even warranted. Still, the least she could do was say something to make the long drive to Iowa seem less painful.

"Or you could do the harsh thing and just tell her to fuck off." Summer, the ever-honest one, didn't hold back any punches. When she gained stares from her best friend, Dean and Seth, she tensed up. "What? Sometimes in these situations you have to be harsh to make your point." Slouching back in her seat, the blonde crossed her arms and shook her head. "Apparently I'm the only one who's told an ex to fuck off."

Trying not to laugh, Paige gave her a condoling look. At least the car ride was becoming somewhat enjoyable though they still had a long way to go.

* * *

><p>They had stopped at a gas station in Arizona to get some snacks while Seth filled up his Tahoe. When the girls went into the place, they got stared at by a couple of older gentlemen. Paige and Summer quietly grabbed items from the shelves until they made it to a safe corner of the store to talk. "So are you okay, Paige?"<p>

"I think I'm more numb than anything – the anticipation is actually not getting to me. I'm not nervous. I just want to get it over with. The sooner I find out if I'm a match or not, the sooner we can get the hell out of there." Taking a gamble on what Seth liked to drink, the dark haired woman grabbed him a bottle of Dr. Pepper from the cooler, along with one for her. "Dean will probably want beer, huh? Well, Mr. Ambrose, I don't have a fake I.D. He'll have to settle for Coke."

"You cannot change the subject like that – which you're really good at, okay? I'm your best friend, Paige. Best friends tell each other stuff. I know you're not for the girl bonding but it is okay to say what's on your mind." The blonde really wanted to be there for her friend, but it was absolutely difficult when she was getting nothing to go on.

"Truth be told, I don't know what's going to happen and that scares the crap out of me. I don't like it when I'm not prepared. For all I know, she could be the nicest lady in the world and I could wind up liking her. But I'm mostly scared of not being able to forgive her. I know she had her reasons for giving me up. It just… makes my head spin that once she got her shit together, she never fought for me."

"Paige, I can't even imagine how you're feeling, but maybe she thought you wouldn't want to speak to her if you found out the truth. From what you showed me of the letter, she seems sincere and she seems like she really loves you; going to Iowa is a good thing for the both of you."

"But she's dying. I don't want to put myself through that." Holding in the tears that she had been fighting back since finding out about everything, Paige took a deep breath and made a beeline for the front counter to pay for everything. Right as she was about to pay, she was stopped when Seth gave the clerk his card. "You really don't have to do that."

"Think of it as a free vacation. I pulled you out of California. The least I can do is pay for all this stuff." Taking the plastic bag from the clerk, Seth walked in front of both the girls and held the door open for them.

"You know I can pay for my own things. I'm not a charity case." Her defenses were up – they weren't close enough to be doing stuff like that for one another. When he continued walking to the car, brushing off her remark, she raised her voice. "I'm talking to you, Seth."

Giving the bag to the blonde woman and gesturing for her to go on without him, the man went back over to Paige and said, "I know you're not a charity case. I'm just trying to be nice. If you don't like how I do things, then maybe you should just shut up for the rest of the way. You've had an attitude with me all morning. What did I do to you?"

"What did you do to me? Really? You have your friend's family member look up my information, then you track me down like a stalker. Oh, and my favorite part, you tell me I'm adopted like it was some walk in the park and tell me that my birth mum is dying. And I might be her only way to live. Does that answer your question?"

"No one held a gun to your head and forced you to go through with this. So while you're blaming me for possibly saving a life, maybe you should take another look in the mirror and figure out why you don't want to." And just like that, he walked away from her, completely undeterred by their conversation.

Following step, the British woman got back into the vehicle, trying to figure out what made her snap the way she had. But when the memory of her parents came rushing back to her, she realized that she needed to tone down her anger. It wasn't anyone else's fault for what happened to her. Resting her head against the seat, Paige soon drifted off into a much-needed sleep.

* * *

><p>Seth and Paige had fallen asleep in the backseat while Dean opted to drive and Summer rode shotgun because she had no choice. The last thing either one of them wanted was to be in an even closer proximity than they had to be. "So what's your story, Dean? Why are you the way that you are?"<p>

"My story? I don't have a story," the shaggy-haired man kept his eyes on the road, maintaining his nonchalant demeanor. This was not the time to share stories about how they currently came to be and to bond over how similar they were – if that were even possible.

"Everyone has a story, Dean. Fine, I'll go first if you don't feel comfortable. My parents divorced a couple years back because my mom was having an affair while my father was away all the time on 'business trips'. My little sister, Autumn, and I were constantly going back and forth between them, but truth be told, they were too bothered to care about us. We were too much of a burden for them.

"When my junior year of high school hit, I realized I wanted to get out of New York and make something of myself and not be stuck with parents who stopped making an effort to be involved in my life, so I got my shit together and started applying myself in my school work. When I got offered a scholarship to California, I didn't hesitate. It was the furthest away.

"Autumn understood but ultimately resented me for leaving her. I was going to go home this summer for her but she requested for me to stay as far away as possible. That's why when Paige told me about this trip, I offered the company. She doesn't know that my own sister didn't want me home."

Wiping the tears that had fell from her blue eyes some time during her story, the blonde turned her attention to the scenery outside the window beside her. She could sense that Dean had taken his eyes off the road and had put them on her, perhaps in an empathetic way.

Feeling like it was his time to share the tragic tale of his life, Dean let out a sigh – he didn't like talking about it, considering all the emotion came back to him every time he opened up, which was why he never told anyone. Except for Seth.

"My parents died in a car accident when I was five. My older brother was twelve at the time. We went to live with my grandparents and things were going fine for the longest time. Our wounds were healing from our loss. But then they died. I was twelve and my brother was at the age where he could take me in so that I didn't have to wind up with some relative I rarely knew.

"He didn't. He said that he needed to live his own life and he was in no way capable of taking care of a prepubescent. The court ordered me to be shipped to my aunt in Iowa – I could tell she was put out by having to care for me, but was still grateful to have someone. But losing four people in less than a decade and having a brother not want me pulled the trigger for my behavior.

"When I entered high school, I got into countless fights. I barely graduated had it not been for Seth. He bailed me out and even tutored me in the subjects I was failing. That's how him and I became good buds. He had my back even when I didn't deserve it."

Not sure what to say to him, Summer blew out air from her mouth before reaching over to put a hand on his lap. It felt weird to be so consoling to someone who was absolutely repugnant, but since he had divulged something that was clearly painful, she felt obligated to be nice.

"So I guess we both know how rejection feels, especially by those we love. I'm sorry about your parents and your grandparents. I can't even imagine how you felt."

"You've never lost people?" Dean asked, completely undeterred by Summer's hand. Usually he would have made a crude joke, but since they were being serious, it didn't seem like the right time.

"My grandparents died before I was old enough to really know them. Other than that, no. I've been lucky."

Not sure what else to say, the two soaked in the silence for the next hour until Paige and Seth woke up. When Dean pulled into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart so everyone could stretch their legs and use the restroom, the raven-haired woman grabbed Seth's arm to stop him from going inside. "Hey, about earlier, I'm sorry. My issues, public or not, is no reason to go off on you the way I did."

"Thank you." That was all he said before leaving her behind, causing a confused Paige to stare as he got further and further away. What had just happened? Was he pissed at her for the way she freaked out on him? Was it a thing of he didn't know what else to say?

A minute later, she trundled her way through the doors of the store and eyed Summer browsing the clothes section, which surprised the British woman to say the least. In the two years she had known the blonde, there was never a mention of her love for Wal-Mart. "I didn't think you fancied the likings of a discount store like this."

"I usually don't. But damnit, Dean Ambrose is getting to me, Paige. I hate him. I really hate him. But we had this really deep conversation and he just… understood me. Even for a split second. And I understood him and why he's such an ass."

"So you like him?" Paige asked, slightly confused by her friend's incoherent ramblings.

"God no! I don't think I ever will. But I can relate to him in so many ways."

"That's why you're looking at discounted shirts?"

"No… I saw this really cute blue sweater and had to look at it." Pulling the shirt off the rack, the blonde looked at the price tag and smiled. "I don't want to be like my parents and buy high-priced things. You know the reason I came with you, Paige? It's because my sister—my baby sister—doesn't want me to. She still resents me for leaving her behind."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Paige draped an arm over her friend's shoulder and pulled her in closer to her.

"Because you have enough stuff going on in your life and I didn't want to load my family drama on top of the drama you already have."

"Oh my little blonde crumpet, if you're going through something and you need me, you can come to me no matter what."

As they waited in line so that Summer could pay for her shirt, the guys joined them, Seth receiving a phone call in the process. Grunting in frustration, he stepped aside to answer the call. "What part of us not talking do you not get?"

"_Seth, can we please be adults about this and just talk? I miss you."_ His ex spoke, making him roll his eyes.

"AJ, I don't miss you. I don't want to talk to you. You broke my heart. It's kind of hard to forget about that so easily, especially since you laughed about me to all your girlfriends. Don't call me again." Then he clicked the phone off and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Everything okay?" Paige sauntered over to him, leaving Summer to fend for herself as Dean stood there behind her, clearly getting on her nerve. "You seemed pretty upset."

"It was AJ – she just doesn't know when to quit." He ran a hand through his two-toned hair, slightly uncomfortable from having to discuss this with someone he barely knew. "She made a bet with her friends that she could convert me to someone I'm not. I overheard her and her friends talking about it. There was no remorse in her voice."

"And now that it's over, she wants you back." When he nodded, she continued. "Yeah, I know about that. My ex Wade cheated on me and the other night he told me that he made a mistake and that he wants us to have another chance. But the root of our problems lies so much deeper than what was on the surface. He cheated on me because I wouldn't have sex with him even though we were together for over a year. I guess he felt entitled to go out and sleep with the first girl he saw."

"Maybe AJ should look up this Wade guy and they could date. At least that would get us off the hook." For the first time since he met her, Paige proffered a smile. And God was it beautiful. Elbowing her to look at their friends, Seth shook his head in disbelief. "I don't think Dean has ever had so much fun tormenting someone."

"And I don't think Summer has had so much fun being annoyed – she says she hates him but it looks like she's enjoying herself." Folding her arms across her chest, the pale woman just stared at the sight of Summer and Dean having it out.

When Seth's phone rang again, bringing Paige out of her reverie, he simply ignored the call and stood with her as they waited on Summer to finish paying. Moments later, they were back in the car, only this time it was Paige riding shotgun and Seth in the driver's seat.

Feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket, her good mood shifted when she read the text message: _Paige, please call me when you get the chance. It's important. Love mom._

Instead of replying back, she hit the delete button and acted like nothing had happened. But there was no way in hell she could forget about it. What did that woman want? For Paige, she was definitely in no rush to find out. Elena Knight would have to wait.

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><p><strong>AN: **I'm not very happy with how this chapter turned out. But you got some background on Dean and Summer.


	5. I'm Not Okay

**A/N: **Sorry it took a bit longer than usual to get an update in. Netflix distracted me. Gossip Girl distracted me. I hope you guys are still into this.

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><p>"What is with you? You've been completely devoid of emotion since we left Colorado." Summer urged Paige to go against her belief of opening up. "Paige, I cannot help you if you don't tell me what's going on."<p>

As Paige laid on the bed in her and the blonde's hotel room, she simply stared at the white ceiling, doing her best to avoid having this conversation. It meant having to tell her the whole story and she wasn't ready to do that yet. But maybe she could get away with telling her bits and pieces.

With her hands on her hips, the persistent woman perched herself at the edge of the bed and glared at the woman who was in need of comforting. "Look, you don't have to tell me everything. Just tell me why you're in such a funk."

Sitting up, the raven-haired woman sighed. "My mum texted me, something about it being urgent and to call her when I have the chance. Truth be told, I don't want to. But I'm scared that if I don't, they win. I hate my parents, Summer. They're bad people. They… hurt me. When I left England, it was the best thing to ever happen to me. It was my way of getting away from them."

"Paige, I don't know what happened in your past, but I know that the only way you can move forward is if you learn to forgive. I will hold your hand, but you should make that phone call because if you don't, I know you'll regret it."

Every time those two had a conversation, the blonde woman was always taking the British woman by surprise. All the stereotypes that Paige initially thought of when they first met were diminishing little by little with every moment they spent together. It was nice to have someone like that to rely on. And while she wasn't fully ready to open up to her best friend, she knew she wanted to when she was. That had to count for something.

Taking a deep breath, the raven-haired woman grabbed her cell phone and dialed a very familiar number. It was easily detectable how choked up she was when she swallowed the gigantic lump in her throat as she listened to the phone ring a couple of times before a familiar pierced her ears.

Wiping a stray tear from her eye, she cleared her throat before answering, "Hi, mum." Her heart was racing the entire time, unprepared as to what to say. "What's wrong? You said it was urgent."

"_Ben's in jail, I just thought you should know that." _Her mother's voice shifted from sweet to completely indifferent.

Ben. There's a person that Paige hadn't wanted to think about since that night. The night when her whole world changed. To hear his name again brought back all the pain, all the memories that she had tried to shove away. Although it still haunted her day in and day out, Paige had finally come to terms with it all.

"For what?" She calmly asked, fighting back everything she was feeling because Summer was around, holding her hand like she had promised.

"_You know what, Paige."_ When the words assailed her, she clicked her phone off and just sat there in silence, trying her best to be happy about this. But she couldn't. It was five years too late. Him going to jail didn't take back what he stole from her. And it certainly didn't make up for her parents' mistake.

"I'm gonna take a hot shower. Please don't check on me. I want to be alone." With that, she stood to her feet and let go of her friend's hand, heading straight to the bathroom of their hotel room. Anything to get her mind off of the news and anything to get away from having to deal with it was better than having to sit around and think about it.

* * *

><p>"I don't know what to do. She's locked herself in the bathroom." A concerned Summer said to Seth and Dean as they listened outside the bathroom door.<p>

"Paige, it's Seth." He knocked on the door, trying to be as polite as possible. "Paige!" He banged even louder just in case she really couldn't hear him over the noise of the shower running. "Guys stand back. Something's not right." Kicking in the door, Seth found a helpless Paige sprawled in the corner of the shower, blood dripping from her arm.

"Oh my God," Summer cried, grabbing one of the towels from the sink and rushing over to her friend, not giving a care about the fact that her five hundred dollar shoes and her two hundred dollar dress were getting ruined from the hot water drenching her. "What did you do?" Wrapping the towel over her friend's wrist, the blonde just held her close.

"I'm calling an ambulance," Dean said without hesitance.

"No!" Paige pleaded. "Please don't. I'm fine."

"You are not fine. Look at your God damn arm," Summer yelled at her before turning off the shower then she crouched down next to her. "I don't care if you don't want to talk about it, you're going to. Clearly that phone call triggered something. Dean, Seth, could you guys give us some privacy?"

"You sure you're okay, Paige?" Seth truly grew concerned about the woman he had only just met. "I want you to know that whatever it is that you're going through, it's not worth ending your life over. I should know. I tried to once upon a time. We'll let you guys talk."

After they closed the door, the two guys sat on the edge of one of the beds, discussing what they had just witnessed. "When I tried killing myself was there that much blood?"

"Yeah, Seth. I wanted to knock your brain in for pulling a stunt like that. But you had just lost Lizzy and you blamed yourself. Your father blamed you. I'm not justifying it in any way, shape or form. I just think you had a moment of weakness where you didn't want to feel the pain anymore. And I think that's what's going on with Paige.

"There's clearly other stuff there that we don't know about and probably telling her that she's adopted didn't help. It sounds like she's been through hell and back. I don't know if we should take her to Iowa, man. It sounds like she can only take so much until she loses it."

When Summer came out of the bathroom minutes later, wiping her eyes – it was either from the fact that her best friend almost successfully killed herself or it was because of the conversation they had – both guys stood to their feet. "She's not ready to come out. But we had a good talk and I think a weight's been lifted."

"Are you okay? You look pretty upset." For the first time since meeting her, Dean felt sympathetic towards the blonde woman. When she completely lost control of her emotions, the only thing he knew to do was pull her into a hug, stroking her wet hair. "She's going to be fine. It's okay."

Shrugging his shoulders at Seth, the shaggy-haired man just listened as she sobbed into his chest. Even her cries were just as annoying as she was. But he was in no position to turn her away from needing a friend—well Dean wasn't exactly her friend so to speak—to turn to.

"Summer, you can use our room to change in if you want to get out of those wet clothes," Seth suggested, feeling slightly awkward as he stood there by himself. What was even more awkward was watching Dean be affectionate towards another living human being.

"Thank you." She finally pulled away from Dean, brushing her dress off as if the guy she had been hugging was a disease that she was trying to cure herself of by getting rid of traces of him. "Gross. You ever touch me again and I will rip your balls off."

When she exited the room, Dean literally hung his head down and laughed in amusement. "She's going to be fun to mess with. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go torture her some more."

Taking a deep breath, Seth stood there in complete enjoyment when he heard the blonde woman scream from his hotel room, probably having to do with Dean walking in on her in the nude. Grabbing Paige's sweats off her bed, the two-toned man knocked on the bathroom door. "Paige, it's Seth."

"Come in." He could tell that she was still crying.

Slightly nervous, he entered cautiously, slowly approaching the woman who was still sprawled in the corner of the shower. Not caring about getting soaked from the water on the floor, the man took a seat beside the shivering woman, handing her some dry clothes. "You want to talk about it?"

"No, not really. And no offense, I don't want to divulge my past to someone I hardly know. I just barely told Summer everything, after two years." That was all she had to say before the room became silent again.

"You know I tried killing myself a couple years back." Paige's eyes widened in surprise. "I was in a very dark place. I won't go into details, but I just didn't want to be alive anymore. Breathing hurt. There was the biggest ache in my heart and I couldn't handle it."

"So what happened? You seem so full of life now." The raven-haired woman asked out of sheer curiosity. Maybe they had more in common than originally thought.

"I don't know, truth be told. I guess I couldn't actually go through with it. Despite the fact that there were people who wouldn't have missed me one way or another, I couldn't do that to those who cared enough about me."

Resting her head on Seth's shoulder, Paige let out a couple of sobs. "It's just hard keeping everything bottled up and then my past came back to haunt me. I wanted out. I'm tired of the world being on my shoulders. I can't do it anymore."

"Yes, you can. You're stronger than you think you are and you may not see it, but I do. Just talking about it automatically makes you ten times stronger. Don't feel like you can't do this because you can."

This was not what she expected from him. Seth always had such a strong demeanor, never giving the impression that he had gone through something remotely traumatic. He always seemed like he had his shit together. And the fact that she had someone to talk to about almost killing herself made her feel somewhat better.

"Paige, I know that we're pretty much strangers but if need someone to talk to you can come to me." Seth said, kissing the top of her head, inadvertently sniffing her long hair in the process.

"Thank you for everything. What you're doing is a good thing. I'm nervous about meeting Diane. What if she doesn't like me? What if I'm not a match? I know I have never met her but I don't think I could live with not being able to save her."

Trying his best to comfort her, the two-toned man sucked in a breath. Every fear of hers was his exactly. When he didn't know how to answer, he simply sighed. "We'll cross that bridge if we get there. But you should probably get some rest. There's only one more day on the road before we get there. I don't want Diane killing me for not treating you well."

"You've been wonderful. And i hope that after this you and I can remain friends." Lifting her head from his muscular shoulder, she sweetly kissed his cheek in a genuine gesture.

"I'm going to let you get dressed. Plus, I should probably stop Summer from killing Dean. He followed her into our hotel room as she was changing."

When he hopped up to leave, Seth helped the Paige to her feet. In the process, she wound up tripping over her feet. Luckily for her, she fell into some strong arms. Strong, muscular arms. Looking up into those eyes of his, she felt her breath hitch in her throat. This was the first time they had had such an intimate moment like this and while maybe they had some spark, Paige wouldn't allow herself to get close to anyone considering what she had been through.

And Seth was a good guy and he deserved to be with someone who could give him all the things she would never be able to. Besides, he lived in Iowa and she lived in California. It would never work out.

When Seth finally let go of her, Paige could see the struggle he was having too. He hadn't exactly expressed his interest in her. That was also why Paige was holding back from doing anything. "Goodnight, Paige."

To make their encounter even more awkward, Seth proffered a hand shake and then rushed out without looking back.

* * *

><p>Upon his return to his hotel room, Seth wasn't all that surprise when he took in Dean and Summer battling it out, the latter trying to get shirt pajama shirt back from the former. At least she had her bra on otherwise that would have definitely made this all the more awkward.<p>

"I swear to God, Dean, if you don't give me my shirt back I will think of some revenge to get on you. I mean it."

"You two need to figure out a way to be civil with one another otherwise you will not survive the summer," the two-toned man interjected. "Dean, give her back her shirt."

Hesitantly handing the woman back her top, Dean smirked when she sheepishly struggled to cover herself up. "Who would have thought that such an uptight woman would have such a hot body," he tried provoking the blonde some more, hindering her from exiting the room.

"You're disgusting. If Paige didn't need me, I would go back to California but I'm not one to put myself before my friends." Getting up in Ambrose's face, she slapped him across his cocky face. "I'm warning you, no more funny business. I wouldn't want to reject you like everyone else in your life has."

And with that, she brushed past him, purposely bumping his shoulder on her way out. For the first time in a long time, Dean was truly taken aback by her remark. So that's how they were going to play? Well he definitely had some ammunition of his own. If she wanted a war, Summer Rae was going to get one.

"Wait, you told her about your past? Dean, I thought you weren't one to open up to people. That's great, I guess. I'm just surprised you confided in Summer of all people."

"Well you were asleep and she insisted that we share. Plus she told me some stuff about her life growing up so I thought maybe she would be somewhat sympathetic. Guess I was wrong."

Shrugging off her comments, Dean took a seat on the edge of his bed. "How's Paige?"

"She'll be okay. I don't think she was trying to kill herself. I think it was just her way of handling her pain. She's been through a lot, so it seems. And I told her about the time I tried to killed myself and let her know that if she wants to talk I'm here for her."

"Dude, do you like her or something? You've been by her side constantly since we left California." This was an interesting predicament for Seth to be in. Besides, Dean knew his friend better than he wanted to admit. But if it was going to get Seth over his psycho ex girlfriend then the man was onboard.

"What? No! Why would you think something like that?" Tying to remain nonchalant about Dean's accusation, Seth stated rummaging around in his duffel bag for a clean pair of clothes. He didn't want to look his best friend in the eye because Dean would be able to see through his bullshit.

"It's okay if you have the hots for her."

"Like you have a huge boner for Summer."

"Nice try, Seth. You are not going to switch this around on me. I loathe Summer. You know that. The whatever it is that we have is strictly to cure our boredom. You and Paige seem to have a solid connection. I would look into it."

"I think I'll pass. She's only in town long enough to donate what is needed and then she's heading back to California." Stopping his initial task, Seth finally looked up at his friend. "And it's not even like that. She's cool to talk to but she's been through her fair share of trauma."

"So you're saying she's damaged goods? That's not a good reason to not go after someone you're into." Sighing heavily, Dean hung his head down. "I know you've shut down over the years. When you got with AJ, I thought the old you was coming back and then you found out her secret and closed yourself off again."

Instead of saying anything to further prove how right his friend was, the two-toned man sucked in a breath. There was no way he could deny Dean's comments. Truth be told he hadn't been himself in such a long time. When he met AJ, he felt like he could open up to her but the moment she betrayed him, he realized that he couldn't count on anyone for that matter.

"You deserve to be happy, that's all I am saying." Standing to his feet, Dean ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "Now if you'll excuse me I am going to offer an apology to Summer and see how Paige is doing."

When Seth heard the door close, he pulled out his cell phone and hesitantly called a person he had been trying to avoid. "Hey, when I get back home, do you want to grab lunch so we can talk?"

And the whole time he had no idea that Paige was standing outside, listening in to his conversation to—she assumed was—his ex girlfriend. For some reason unbeknownst to her, she felt disappointed. It looked like her attraction for the mysterious man was more serious than she thought.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **This turned out to be complete crap but I wanted to get an update in.


	6. But Until Then

**A/N: **Thanks for all the continued support.

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><p>Paige's nerves were absolutely out of this world the closer they got to Iowa – in just less than twenty-four hours she would be meeting the woman who gave her up for adoption. There were so many questions she wanted to ask this woman—she even had a conversation planned out in her head—but knew she had to keep calm no matter how upsetting the answers were.<p>

As _Bon Jovi_ roared through Seth's Tahoe, the raven-haired woman stared aimlessly out the window, watching the yellow lines as they went by. When they woke up this morning to continue on this journey, everyone had been silent. Summer, though, had attempted a couple of times to play "I Spy" on the way up but no one was into the idea.

"Are we really just going to sit in silence for the next day or however long it takes for us to get there?" Summer twisted a strand of her long blonde hair around her finger, avoiding the gaze from a smirking Dean Ambrose, who willingly gave up the passenger seat so Paige could sit there.

"Well if you're that bored, sweetheart, I can think of a few things to do to pass the time." The devilish gleam in his eyes made the blonde roll hers. After last night's antics, she was in no mood for his smart-ass comments. Or his sexual ones for that matter.

"You wouldn't be able to handle me," was all she said before shooting a text message off on her phone to Dolph. She hadn't heard from him in a couple of days and although they were going to test the waters over the summer, her heart still wanted him. And only him.

How could he say that he wanted to see other people? Did their relationship mean that little to him that he thought he could do better? She knew she couldn't, especially if the only guys she was going to surround herself with all summer long were Dean and Seth. And if they indicated how Iowa boys were, this was definitely going to be a boy-free vacation.

How was it possible that her summer vacation was now filled with subjecting herself to the drama of Paige meeting her birth mother and Dean's perverted antics? This wasn't exactly the fun one she had planned out, that was for sure. But, alas, her best friend needed her now more than ever so she gave up her initial plan. Plus, after what Paige told her about her past, the blonde was in no position to just up and abandon her during this rough transition.

But it still didn't make her feel any better that she had yet to hear back from her boyfriend. In fact, it made her feel all the more anxious being away from him for so long. Why wasn't he responding back to her? Had he already met someone else? That thought made her feel sick to her stomach.

Growing frustrated, the blonde woman slammed her phone back into her purse and sat back in her seat with her arms folded across her chest. If Dolph wanted to ignore her calls and text messages then she could play that game too. Starting now, she was going to make the most out of this situation and start having fun.

"So where are we going anyway?" She inquired upon realizing that they were definitely somewhere in Kansas. "Last time I checked, this wasn't our initial route to Iowa."

"You're correct. But I think an extra day is merited so Paige can collect her bearings and figure out how to go about things with Diane." Quickly glancing in her direction, the two-toned man looked concern. "You've been really quiet this morning. Are you okay?"

"I'm peachy. Just thinking." Her British accent filled the car. It was evident that something was definitely on her mind. Feeling the soreness on her wrist due to the incident from the night before, the raven-haired woman took a deep breath. "What if I'm not what she expects?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, Seth. I almost killed myself last night. I doubt Diane wants to accept that her daughter is suicidal. Plus, I'm not a happy person. Why would she want to associate with someone who is so bleak and doesn't believe that there's a future for herself?"

"Paige, I don't think any of that matters to her. And I know you're there to save the day but at the end of it, I think all she wants is a clean slate. Maybe, just maybe, everything you've been searching for or whatever is there."

Opting not to say anything, she simply stayed silent and continued staring out the window. That was until she wanted to change the subject and find out who it was that Seth had called the night before. "So I was outside your door last night when you called someone, asking to get together when you got back. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you were talking to that ex girlfriend of yours."

"Is that a question or an accusation? Because I have to say that eavesdropping is a big turn off for me." The aura had turned tense. For the first time since meeting him, Seth grew defensive – Paige had no right to question him about his choices when they barely knew each other.

"Did you really call AJ, dude?" Dean chimed in from the backseat. Now things were going to get interesting to say the least.

"Does it matter?" Seth, again, his tone was self-protective – what business was it of theirs to know if he had spoken to his ex? Pulling off to the side of the road, he wasted little time putting the car in park mode and hopping out of the vehicle to calm his nerves. He was pissed.

Summer, Dean and Paige all watched as he stomped off to a field that was a good twenty feet away from where they were. Sliding into the driver's seat, the British woman wound up putting the car in drive and followed Seth out into the field. When she pulled up beside him, she rolled down the window and shouted, "Are you fucking crazy? Get your ass back in this car now before I run you over."

"You're acting like a five-year-old," Dean interjected, undoing his seatbelt and hopping out of the vehicle as well. "Why are you being such a dick, man? Paige meant no harm in bringing your phone call up. And I meant no harm in asking if it was true about AJ. We're just worried you're falling into old patterns."

"You're worried about me falling into old patterns? You of all people, Dean? The games you've been playing with Summer is your way of distancing yourself from women because you don't want to get involved in a relationship. Don't tell me about old patterns when you're still stuck in yours."

The blonde woman flinched at Seth's words – this was interesting to learn about the shaggy-haired man. So he was purposely being a dick to try to repel her. Not that she wanted to be his girlfriend or anything, but she was kind of offended that he blew her off before getting to know her.

"Both of you guys need to shut the hell up," Paige said, angrily exiting the vehicle as well, making sure to slam the door as hard as possible without breaking it. "Seth, I apologize for bringing it up. I just think you can do better than going back to your ex who has hurt you."

"You don't even know me."

"Maybe I don't. But the guy who comforted me last night deserves a hell of a lot better than someone who thinks of him as her little project. If you're gonna act like a little bitch though, please turn the car around and take me home." Standing there with her arms folded across her chest, the woman knew that she wasn't going home. Seth would do anything to help Diane, even if that meant getting his act together.

"You've met your match, man." Dean chuckled a bit, slapping his friend on the chest, intermittently glancing at the blonde who hadn't budged from her seat in the car. She was the only one who hadn't given an input on the situation and it actually took him by surprise.

Taking notice of her friend's absence, the British woman opened the door beside the blonde and leaned in. "Hey, you okay? You're quiet."

"Should I be upset that Dean doesn't want me even though I am not attracted to him at all? I think all this stuff with Dolph is messing with my head," she answered in a hushed tone so that neither guy could hear them. Covering her face with her hands, she shook her head. "What is wrong with me?"

Wrapping her arms around her friend, Paige for once offered comfort to the only person in her life who truly deserved it. "Nothing is wrong with you. Dolph's an idiot for wanting to see other people." Removing her long locks from her friend's face, Paige kissed the top of her head. "You are the best person I know and you have the biggest heart. And after listening to me last night I can honestly say that you deserve the world."

"It feels so trivial complaining about my problems to you when you've gone through so much worse." Pulling out of her friend's grasp, Summer straightened up and rolled her eyes as a way of masking of how much she was not okay. "What's the deal with our boys?"

"Let's find out." Extending her hand to Summer, the two walked over to them, gaining glares from the guys. "You know they're having that fantasy right now because we're holding hands, right?"

"I told you Dean Ambrose was a perv. Never thought Seth would classify as one though. Oh well." Once they stood in front of them, they let go and had a good laugh. "You guys are so turned on right now it's not even funny."

Shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans, Seth stared at Paige with so much intensity. "I owe you an apology. I know you just want what's best for me. When I get defensive, I'm a real ass – you don't deserve that."

"Thank you. Is it weird that I care about your well-being? I just want you happy. AJ can't accomplish that. Just like Dolph can't make Summer happy. Just like Wade can't make me happy." Proffering a smile as best as she could, she was taken aback when the two-toned man pulled her into a hug, holding her just right.

Was it strange that this was the safest she had ever felt? How could a complete stranger make her feel so normal? Taking in his scent, she couldn't help the huge grin forming on her face. It was nice having someone hold her like this, even though it was a completely foreign concept to her. Wade had never held her like this, never hung onto her like this.

Maybe Seth had been right about her discovering everything she needed – only maybe it was in the form of something completely unexpected.

* * *

><p>The group had decided to camp out in the field since they were already there and the scenery was to die for. Plus it would all benefit them given that they would save money from not having to rent out a hotel room for the evening. Even Summer—the high maintenance one of them—was onboard. She said she wanted to get in touch with her "nature side".<p>

They had drove a bit away from the open road to a much more secluded area with rocks and hills surrounding them. The sky was absolutely breathtaking in its current form, the reddish orange tint right before the sun went down completely.

"Why don't Summer and I go and look for some kind of wood to make a fire. And you two figure out what to make said fire with," Dean suggested, brushing himself off before helping the petite blonde to her feet, surprised with her lack of hesitance.

"I don't know if that's a good idea for two reasons. The obvious being that you two can't get along long enough to look for firewood. The other being that Summer is afraid of the dark," Paige spoke up, shrugging when her best friend widened her eyes at her.

"Aww, you're scared of the dark? What are you – five?" Dean towered over her with skeptical eyes.

"No, you ass. When I was in high school I was attacked in a parking garage by a couple of gang members. I never saw them coming. So you'll excuse me if being in the dark frightens me."

"You never told me that story, Summer." Paige was kind of surprised that she hadn't heard about this before. Maybe her and Summer were more connected than she originally thought.

"Well I don't like to talk about it, Paige, much like you with, you know. I guess we've both been through some bad shit." Putting all her attention on the man who had changed his facial expression from amused to apologetic, the blonde grew annoyed. "Let's go."

When she sauntered off without him, the shaggy haired man just looked back at their friends before taking off after her. "Wait up," he called out, desperately trying to get her to stop for a second. He was impressed with how fast she could walk in those six-inch heels of hers.

As soon as he reached her, he grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to look at him. "I'm sorry. I've said it a dozen times already, I know. Seth is the only friend I have so I can be an absolute jerk around him and he doesn't mind. When I'm around other people, I don't know how to act, but I am sorry for making fun of you back there."

"The Dean Ambrose I'm looking at right now, I actually like him. You have a heart, it's just been mistreated and I can't fault you for that. So instead of getting pissed off at you when you're mean, I'm just going to accept that it's a part of who you are."

Looking up at the sky, the man was doing everything he could to ignore the kind words spewing from the woman's mouth. Not to mention, he had no idea how to reply to her since being nice wasn't exactly in repertoire.

"You don't have to act embarrassed. We're adults here. We can give compliments without expecting anything in return. I think you're going to be a great challenge for me, but I'm ready for it."

Smirking, he got up closer to her. "You're ready, huh? I bet that by the end of summer we'll have at least one indiscretion under our belts." When he put his hands on her hips, she didn't even flinch from the touch. "But something tells me that you already know that."

"And I bet that you'll beg me to stay." Furrowing her eyebrow, the blonde stood on her tippy toes and whispered in his ear, "but until then." She never got the chance to finish her sentence when Dean pulled her towards him again and quickly pressed his lips onto hers.

At first she tried hitting him a couple of times on his chest to try to stop what was happening but eventually her fight wavered and she sank into the kiss, more fervent than ever to keep this going until she needed to catch her breath. What was wrong with her? Hadn't she just said a mere hour ago that she wasn't attracted to this man? Now she was making out with him.

Maybe it was because her missing Dolph impaired her sanity. Or maybe it was because she wanted to get back at her boyfriend in general. And while Dean wasn't exactly someone to be jealous of, it was a good start.

Finally, he slowly pulled himself away from the woman, pressing his forehead to hers. "But until then," he repeated her words, him trying to make out why the hell he just did that. This was a woman who had constantly sparred with for the past couple of days, a woman he couldn't stand the majority of the time. But something clicked and it forced him to do it, like she was a magnet.

For the remainder of the time they were out searching for some wood, neither one said a word to each other – it wasn't guilt they were feeling either. They were both scared what this had meant. Dean was letting down his guard and Summer was starting to see that this challenge she said she was ready for was going to be a lot harder than initially thought.

They were both in for a world of surprises and a world of hurt.

* * *

><p>"What is taking them so long?" An impatient Paige rested against Seth's vehicle, all the while ignoring the amused look on the man's face. "Should we go look for them?"<p>

"No, I don't think we should. They probably had to go further out than planned to find wood. It is just dirt and rocks out here. I'm sure they're fine. Will you please come sit down with me? I'm feeling quite lonely." Feigning a pout, the Iowa native even sniffled a bit to add some dramatics.

"You're quite cute, I hope you know." The compliment had slipped out of her mouth before her brain could register what she was about to say. Squinting her eyes shut in complete mortification, the British woman issued a sigh. "I can't believe I just said that out loud."

"So you've been thinking it then? Is that why you got jealous when you heard my conversation with AJ?" Seth chuckled. It was nice being able to have a good time and not feel like he had to be someone that he wasn't. Him and Paige were so similar with their personalities. It was no wonder why they instantly connected.

"Don't let it go to your head, okay?" She couldn't take it back. She couldn't say that she didn't mean it. All she could do was ride out the storm. Hopefully this wasn't going to be something that he always brought up to remind her of the blunder she made.

"If it makes you feel better—I can see how you're blushing, by the way—I was attracted to you when I first saw you. I don't think I had ever seen another goth chick as hot as you."

Paige laughed at his comment – goth chick? She had heard it several times before and it had never bothered her—goth was her thing—but for some reason hearing Seth say it rubbed her the wrong way. "Goth chick? Is that how you see me?"

Realizing he had put his foot way too far into his mouth, he covered his face with his hands, trying to think of the best way to say this without offending her any more than he had already. Finally he settled on the next words that came out without hesitance. "Not at all. It was a stupid thing to say. I meant that you're different and unique and that's what initially attracted me to you. You genuinely do not give a fuck. But you also wear your heart on your sleeve and people take advantage of that.

"Like your ex. You said he wants another chance. Don't do it. If he was stupid enough to just throw away your relationship because you refused to have sex with him, then he doesn't deserve you. I say a woman should ultimately be in charge of when she's ready to make such a commitment to the relationship strictly because there's more responsibility on her end. If you weren't ready, that's no reason for him to cheat."

God, if only he knew the real reason behind why she wasn't ready to go all the way with her ex. Summer took her by surprise by being real understanding when she opened up about her horrendous past. But she doubt Seth would harbor the same feelings.

Sure, maybe he would be sympathetic, but she wasn't searching for that. She didn't want him treating her like she was made out of glass and could break at any moment; it seemed like they were really hitting it off and if anything happened to ensue between them during the summer, she wanted it to because they both felt the same way. Not out of sympathy. Not out of comfort.

Before she had the chance to say anything, Dean and Summer came rushing back towards them, both having a look of regret plastered on their faces. Seth and Paige shared curious glares, wondering what the hell happened.

Their appearances grew deceiving when they placed all the wood they had stumbled upon in a pile in front of their friends. "Well we did our part. Your turn." Dean accidentally touched the blonde woman's hand in the process, playing off his reaction as nothing more than disgust.

"Are you guys okay? You seem apprehensive about something." Seth took his lighter from his pocket and poured some of the alcohol him and Dean had bought over the logs – it wasn't the best fire in the world, but it was something.

"Just listening to Dean gave me a headache so I did absolutely no work. I figured if I had to be subjected to his constant complaints about me as a human being then he should do the work." Looking at her nails, she couldn't help the smirk that showed up out of nowhere.

While it was convincing enough for them to drop the subject altogether, Dean and Summer almost gave themselves away when Paige caught them making googly eyes at one another, the latter tearing herself away from the glare to pay attention to her phone, pretending like she had a text message. When the time was right, the British woman decided she would get to the bottom of it all. But until then, she just wanted to spend this peaceful time to get herself together for tomorrow's big meeting.

And although she was shaking on the inside due to nerves, when Seth draped an arm over her shoulders, Diane was the least of her troubles – Seth was going to be her ultimate downfall if they kept going at this rate. This Paige was certain of.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **This chapter was fun to write.


	7. The Meeting

**A/N: **I hope you guys are liking this story so far. I'm having a lot of fun writing it.

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><p>There were absolutely no words to describe the way Paige currently felt as they pulled up in the driveway of what she assumed was Seth's home. It had been a rough couple of days and now the climax of it all was about to take place and she wasn't sure if she was ready for it all.<p>

Taking a deep breath, the young woman made the first move by opening the car door, hopping out of the backseat. Soaking up the gigantic house staring her straight in the face, the gorgeous black and red brick pattern enraptured her. The antique balcony circled all the way along the house, making it feel more rustic. The wrap around porch provided it with a homey feeling as well.

She couldn't believe that she was going to stay there – it looked like something in a fairytale. You could see how irritated Seth was to be back as he sifted around for the correct key. Once inside, the foyer was even more amazing the outside structure.

On one side was a very large antique wooden chest with a couple of plants and other items lying on it – there were two winding staircases on each side, leaving the girl in awe. She had never seen such a house. But right before she could notice anything else, a woman who was the spitting image of herself descended the stairs to greet everyone.

Summer wrapped a protective arm around her friend when she saw Paige about to lose it – it was her way of trying to calm her down. The lump in the British woman's throat grew once Diane stood a mere foot away from her. "You're so beautiful," Diane said.

Tears filled her eyes when the stranger pulled her in for a hug – for nineteen years this was all she had craved from her parents. Feeling slightly awkward, the raven-haired woman pulled herself away from her birth mom. "Looks like you went from living in the streets to living in a castle." She said in response to the letter she read when she had first found out.

"There were so many times when I wanted to call you, but your parents requested that I didn't. I thought it was because they had told you and you were upset."

"They never told me. I just found out. I have so many questions for you. And I'm trying to be reasonably calm because I want to give you the benefit of the doubt but it's hard learning that you weren't good enough."

"My sweet Britani—that was what I named you for that brief day I had you—I wasn't good enough for you." The older woman stroked her daughter's face for the first time and it was obvious that she too had been having a hard time with this. "I wish there was something I could say that could take everything back."

When Paige said nothing, Seth gave his stepmother a hug. "How's dad? When I left he didn't seem like he was in a good place."

"He's scared. He's lost one wife and one daughter. I don't think his heart can take much more." The mention of Lizzy caught Summer and Paige by surprise. This was the first time either one of them had heard of Seth's dead sister.

"I don't think he claims me either," Seth sadly admitted out loud, forgetting about the guests standing beside him. "But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about how great it is for you to be reunited with your daughter."

All of a sudden, Diane held her head in pure agony, grabbing onto staircase railing to keep her on her feet. "I think I'm gonna go lay down and take some of my meds. Paige, I apologize for this. I really wanted to talk."

"We can talk later, Diane. What's important is that you get some rest." The nineteen-year-old woman seemed concerned for her birth mom in that instant. She hadn't realized it was this bad. "Would you like some help getting to your room?"

"No, I'll be fine. Make yourself at home. Seth can show you and your friend to your rooms." Slowly but surely, Diane crept up the stairway, making damn sure she kept her balance. Upon reaching her room, the woman stumbled in and then closed the door behind her.

Covering her mouth, Paige wasn't sure how she felt now that she had met her dying mother and saw first hand how sick she truly was. "I didn't know she was that bad. How long has this been going on?"

"We found out last week but she's been sick for a while – she just thought she was sick because of the flu or something but when it lingered and it worsened, my dad and I had to force her into finding out what was wrong."

"What do they say will happen if I'm not a match?" This had been a question that had plagued her since she left California. Not only would her travel to Iowa have been for nothing, she would have failed in saving her only birth parent. Selfishly she didn't want it hanging over her head.

"Well they're still going forward with the usual treatment – chemo, radiation. If you're not a match, they're going to continue to search for one but that could be a while. That's why it was vital to find a family member. But I refuse to think negatively. Anyway," he ran his fingers through his long locks—Paige hadn't noticed how long his hair was since he always had it pulled back—trying to change the subject, "I guess I should show you two to your rooms."

The two women followed in tow, Dean having issues dragging Summer's trunk of crap – as he liked to refer it as – up the stairs. He couldn't help but stare at the blonde's ass as they walked up the stairs. How could this hot woman be so appalling that he actually couldn't wait to kiss her again – if that even happened.

Had he really lowered his standards on what kind of woman he wanted? Because there was no way in hell that a girl like Summer Rae would ever catch his eye. She was everything he hated. Yet he couldn't get their make out session out of his head. It was in the heat of the moment, something that he planned on never doing again.

And he was positive she felt the same way, seeing as she was the high maintenance princess who probably wanted her prince – let's be honest, Dean was nowhere close to being at prince level. He was a slob. He dressed like he had rolled out of bed – but he was in construction so they didn't care about his appearance. His hair was always a mess. It was obvious that he was not Summer's type.

Once they reached the top of the stairwell, Seth showed each girl their respective room, Paige being right across from Seth's – their attraction had been on hold since she had walked through the front door and met her mother, but that hadn't meant that it still wasn't there.

And when he pulled her aside to check on how she was feeling, he cradled her in his arms, trying to be as consoling as possible. Neither one had a clue that Diane was in the doorway smirking at the two of them. She felt at peace. Say she didn't make it through, at least she knew that Paige had someone to help get her through the tough time.

Clearing her throat, the two pulled apart and sheepishly laughed. "We didn't see you there. I thought you were laying down," Seth inquired, trying to avoid having to be interrogated for the incident they had just been walked in on.

"I tried but I couldn't. I want to get to know my daughter. That's if you're up for it, my dear." She looked at the younger girl with curious eyes – those were her eyes. It was like staring into her soul. She had always wondered what she looked like but she never imagined that she'd look just like her, with those dark locks and those big brown eyes.

Instead of being angry—an emotion she believed she was entitled to feel—the only thing Paige knew to do was smile. "Of course."

"This must be Summer, right?" Diane extended her hand to the blonde, trying her hardest to mask how much pain she was in. "I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. This cancer is trying to make me its bitch."

"Well I see where Paige gets that sharp tongue from. It's really nice to meet you, Diane. I would say I've heard wonderful things about you but since we never knew you existed up until a few days ago, it's kind of hard."

Seth and Dean opted to leave the women so they could bond and get to know one another. Summer, too, felt like she shouldn't be there, but after much persistence by Diane and Paige, she had no choice but to stay. Hours went by and it felt like Paige had known her mom forever. She hadn't decided yet on her feelings towards the woman, but she was definitely glad she decided to meet her.

* * *

><p>Looking around in a record store for some good music, Dean and Seth were just trying to waste some time until they could go back to the house – granted, they could go now, but they didn't want to take the chance of interrupting them. It was better if they were out of the house.<p>

When he picked up an imported _Pantera _CD, he jumped at the first chance to grab it. But of course, like all good things, that didn't go according to plan when a pair of small hands got it first. Holding it up to provoke him, Seth sighed when he assimilated the sight of his ex girlfriend in a pair of suspenders and a white tank top.

"It hasn't been a day since I've been back and you're already following me around. I thought we were going to meet up for lunch so we could talk like adults."

"I couldn't wait. I've missed you," she skipped over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, having to stand on her tiptoes to accomplish that. When he tried pulling away, she went from happy-go-lucky to hell-hath-no-fury, tightening her grip on him. "Is there someone else? Is that why you're being so distant?"

"No, I'm being distant because you're still not getting it. You used me as a little ploy in your game with your friends. You took in no consideration what would happen to me at the end of the day. If you can't see what you've done, AJ, then you're crazier than I thought."

He knew she didn't like being called that, but it was the best way to sum up how she was acting. And he wasn't afraid of how she would react to that. It couldn't be any worse then when she wound up throwing plates at a restaurant because a random stranger was talking about his crazy stalker and she assumed he had been talking about her.

From that day forward, Seth was very much aware of what kind of person he had been dealing with – and while yes his heart got stomp up from her antics, he was more relieved than anything.

"What did you call me?" The glare in her eyes alarmed Seth, but he relaxed when Dean came into his line of vision and saw what was transpiring. "You know I don't like being called that."

"Being called what – crazy?" Dean asked from behind her. Due to her anger, she had no choice but to let go of her grip on her ex. Turning into a smirking Dean, AJ leveled her hand and wound up smacking him across the face.

"Stop!" She stomped her feet, like a child not getting their way when they wanted something and their parents told them no. "I'm not crazy!" Her yells had garnered looks from everyone in the store, including the store manager. Throwing the CD at Seth's head, inadvertently the jagged corner cutting his head open, the petite woman was soon escorted out, trying to fight security. "This isn't over! This isn't over!"

"What's her problem?" The shaggy haired man asked, going back to looking at CD's, Seth doing the same.

"I don't know, she's crazy," he teased, knowing that had she heard him, it would have caused another scene. _It's good to be home, _the two-toned man thought to himself, carrying on in his initial quest with his friend.

* * *

><p>As the night approached and Diane had quietly gone to sleep after having a long discussion with Paige, the nineteen-year-old found herself waiting up for Seth and Dean's return. Summer got interrupted when Dolph finally called her and told her about the girl he had met, which sent her into a frenzy of emotions, causing her to lock herself in her room.<p>

And while she tried being there for her best friend, Summer had pleaded to be alone so she could figure "some shit" out. That left Paige to entertain herself in whatever way she could; she had already flickered through the TV channels to try to find something remotely decent to watch, but it was mainly trashy reality shows that she couldn't stomach.

Pulling out her phone, Paige was surprised to see a text message from Wade. _I just want you to know that I'm thinking of you. _She wasn't sure how to respond or even if she should. For all she knew, her ex had sent that message after sleeping with some blonde bombshell he met back home.

On a brave whim, the raven-haired woman dialed a number in her phone, knowing there'd be repercussions later from Summer. She was quite shocked that the man on the line answered so quickly. _"Hey Paige! Is Summer okay?"_

"Well that's what I wanted to ask you. She's been locked up in her room, bawling her eyes out. I don't think you understand how much this see-other-people thing is killing her. She doesn't want anyone else, Dolph. She loves you."

Paige could hear the frustration from the other end of the line, probably because he didn't like being called out for his stupidity or because he felt like he wasn't in the wrong. _"Summer is a thousand miles away in New York – do you really think our relationship could sustain with the long distance? I don't."_

"First off, Summer's not in New York. She's with me in Iowa. She came with me because… Are you even aware of why she never went home – of why she's in Iowa with me? Summer doesn't deserve this, Dolph. I hope you see that before you lose her." When the front door clicked open, the British woman didn't even say goodbye to Dolph. She just hung up the phone to greet the two guys walking in.

"You're still up?" Seth whispered, making sure not to wake up anyone else. "Is everything okay?"

"I should ask you that. Are you okay?" The woman stood to her feet and made a beeline towards the man, tracing the outline of the cut on his forehead with her fingers. "What happened?"

"His crazy ex threw a fit in the record store because Seth told her how it was." Dean answered in that condescending tone of his. Upon looking around the living room, he took notice of a certain person's absence. "Where's Summer?"

"Locked in her room. She's dealing with some stuff and tonight was definitely a turning point. I hate not being able to be there for her."

Dean kept looking at the stairs, fighting with whether or not he wanted to try to talk the woman into talking to him; why did he care so much about her being upset? Their kiss meant nothing. It was in the heat of the moment. No, he definitely was not going to go up and knock on her door to check on her.

But his feet betrayed him and before anyone had the chance to say anything to him, Dean was off on a mission to cheer up the blonde woman.

"What is up with those two? They've been weird since yesterday." Paige chuckled at Dean's antics, trying to stay as quiet as possible when she heard the shaggy-haired man knock on her friend's bedroom door. "Come on. Let's get the cut cleaned out."

"It's really not that bad," the two-toned man hesitated even though he felt like someone sliced open his head. When he pressed his finger against the sore, he hissed out in pain. "Fine. First-aid kit is in the guest bathroom down the hall. I'll show you the way."

Taking her by the hand, a gesture that hadn't gone unnoticed by the woman, he quietly led the woman to the very end of the hallway and into the gigantic guest bathroom. "Holy shit. I'm pretty sure mine and Summer's dorm room could fit in here. Twice." She joked, trying to crack a smile out of Seth, but he wasn't budging. "I guess seeing AJ was a lot harder than you thought."

When he bent down to reach underneath the long cabinet, he pulled out the first-aid kit, avoiding those curious brown eyes of the woman he was trying to stop thinking about. There was something about her that intrigued him. "Her outbursts are bad, but she's never resorted to trying to harm me. She's tried to harm others, but never me."

"Sit," Paige ordered, impressed with how stern she sounded. Rummaging through the kit, she first pulled out some antibiotic ointment to clean out the man's cut. "I hate to say this, but you really shouldn't go out with Dean anymore. He doesn't keep AJ away. Take a woman next time. If she sees a female in your presence, it should do the trick of keeping her at a considerable distance. She'll think you've moved on."

"I doubt it. If anything, it would make her even crazier. So far it hasn't gotten to the point where I need to go to the police. I would say I'm lucky."

"Seth, I've grown very fascinated with the _Investigation Discovery _channel. She's stalking you. You need to do something about it now before it gets to the point where she's standing on your doorstep with a gun. And I'm not saying this to freak you out, I'm saying it because this is step one of stalking."

When she went to grab a bandage, Seth reached out and grabbed her hand. "Do you ever take the time out to think about yourself for once? You do so much for others. Diane. Summer. Me. When's the last time you did anything for you?"

"It's been a while, to be honest. I like staying busy. It helps me move forward. Too much downtime gets me antsy. Why do you care so much? You barely know me."

That much was true. Seth barely knew anything about the young woman. "I don't know. I like you, Paige. You've made this huge commitment by coming to Iowa to meet your birth mom—something you didn't have to do—just so you can hopefully save her life. I admire that." He gently freed her hand to allow her to finish with patching him up.

Tucking some of her long locks behind her ears, her hands started trembling, something she hoped Seth didn't catch onto. But when the smirk on his face told her otherwise, she gave him a bashful smile. "You make me nervous." In the midst of her shaking fit, she had managed to find a bandage and peel the paper off of it. When she managed to get the band-aid on, she stopped to look at him. "You're all fixed."

"Thank you." He politely said and rose to his feet, towering over the petite woman in front of him. "Goodnight, Paige."

And just like that, he disappeared from the room, closing the door behind him. It took Paige a few seconds to collect her bearings, holding herself up with the sink. It had only been a couple of days but Seth Rollins was starting to get to her. If she wasn't careful, she was going to start unraveling. That was something she hadn't prepared her heart for.


	8. Adjusting

**A/N: **Looks like I'm on a roll with this.

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><p>The next day Paige woke up to the sight of Diane bringing breakfast to her, a big smile on her face. She knew she hadn't forgiven her for abandoning her, but she could see how genuine the woman was in trying to mend fences. Paige wondered if it was because she was grateful for the possible second chance or if it was because she knew she wasn't going to beat the cancer eating away at her.<p>

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, the nineteen-year-old woman slowly sat up against the headboard. "You really don't have to do this, especially in your condition." The pained expression on Diane's face told Paige that she had said the wrong thing. "I'm sorry. It's just you should be resting. We're seeing the doctors in a couple of days. I'm not going anywhere until then."

"Regardless of my condition, this is the healthiest I have felt in months – my baby girl and I are reunited and I want everything to be perfect. I know you have questions for me." Diane perched herself at the edge of her daughter's bed. "Ask away."

"You say that you were a drug addict and on your own when I was conceived. Do you know who my father is?" Ever since finding out about her other life, this was often something she had wondered about.

"Your father was much more dangerous than I ever was. When I was completely incoherent, he took advantage of that. He was just as high as I was, probably more. I could argue that it was rape, but I knew what I was doing and I didn't try to stop him. When I told him I was pregnant, he was ecstatic. He was willing to turn his life around."

"But you weren't ready? I get you were young and had no way to support me, but what about your parents? Couldn't they have taken you in? Or my father's parents? I don't understand, Diane." She had suddenly lost her appetite for food, seeing as the only thing she craved were answers.

"My parents disowned me the minute I stopped going to church. I knew that if I went home and told them I was pregnant that it would really sever the relationship I had with them. They would slam the door on my face. As for your father's parents, it's a complicated situation. His father killed his mother and ended up in prison. That's how your father wound up on the streets."

Letting the tears fall from her eyes, Paige looked away temporarily to hide from the awful truth staring her in the face. So even her lineage of family were as messed up as she was. It looked like her life wouldn't have changed much at all. When her mother reached over and turned her face back to her, Paige completely broke down.

Cradling the distraught woman in her arms, Diane stroked her long black hair. "I can't believe this is the first time I'm holding my daughter. You have to know that I gave you up with good intentions. I truly thought I was doing the right thing."

How could she respond to that without bringing up the mention of how terrible her adoptive parents were? The last thing Diane needed was to be remorseful when she had so much more going on. Opting to shelve that topic entirely, Paige sniffled.

When Diane started singing a lullaby, the California student started softening a bit – as much as she didn't want to let her mom off the hook for doing what she did, this didn't seem like the time to fight with her. They were having a moment and she didn't want that ruined.

Instead, she stayed still and listened as her mother carried on with the song – it erased all her pain for a momentary minute. It was nice to feel normal for once.

* * *

><p>Sulking, with the blankets pulled all the way up to her face, Summer Rae hadn't moved a muscle since finding out that Dolph had met someone. This was ridiculous. She was never someone to let a man control her mood, let alone her emotions. She was Summer Rae, a woman who could have any man she wanted.<p>

Closing her eyes when the bedroom door came flying open, she squealed when Dean walked over and threw her over his shoulder. Hitting him as hard as she could in those little tiny pajama shorts she was currently wearing, there was no point. He was much stronger than her. "Put me down."

"I'm sorry. I didn't hear you." He tuned her out and made a beeline for the backyard where Seth and Paige had been hanging out for the past half an hour. Right at the pool area, the shaggy-haired man wasted little time in throwing the woman in, preparing himself for her outburst.

Taking his shirt off and stripping down to his boxers, Dean jumped in with the girl and he wasn't all too astonished when she splashed him as hard as she could – but let's be honest, she was a tiny woman and her splashes were even tinier. "Did you have to do something so drastic to make your point?"

"You hadn't left your room since last night, according to Paige. You wouldn't let any one of us in. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Besides, you're practically in a swimsuit anyway. Is that what you actually sleep in?"

"What I wear to bed is none of your business, you ass." She splashed him again. And again. And again. She screamed when he rushed at her, put her on his shoulders and dropped her into the water. "I'm gonna kill you." She said between spitting out water.

Sitting on the lounge chair, engrossed in one of her books, the pale woman made sure to focus on her studies instead of the man who gazed over at her every so often. When it became too much, she sighed in defeat. "What, Seth? What?"

"Nothing. It's just… it's a beautiful day and you're out here reading a book. I demand that you start having fun."

"You can't just demand me like that? I don't take too lightly to that."

Rising to his feet, Seth soon shadowed over her, making her pull down her sunglasses to the bridge of her nose to get a better view. "Now either you get up and willingly hop in the pool or I will pull the stunt that Dean did. The choice is yours."

"You wouldn't," she teased him, showing off her pearly white teeth. Setting her book down on the table beside the lounge chair, the woman slowly got up and instead of jumping in, she pushed Seth in, laughing when a look of shock rolled in. "I don't take too kindly to threats either."

"Oh, that's it." Pulling himself out of the pool, his muscles briefly paralyzing Paige, Seth managed to grab a hold of her before she managed to escape and fell back into the water with her in his arms. On the way up, she wound up laughing so hard that the sound was alien for her. She hadn't laughed that hard for as long as she could remember.

Slicking back her hair, the woman ran at the Iowa native as best as she could to try to tackle him but her pint size failed her in that moment. Seth grabbed at her again, only this time she put more of an effort in to fight him back, happily screaming from the shear fun she was having. God, this felt good.

"Is that a laugh I hear?" Seth stopped in his tracks, taking in this new side of Paige – granted it had only been four days, but in that short time he felt like he knew a lot about her even though he knew absolutely nothing when it came to her.

Putting a hand behind his right hear to listen again, his face lit up when the British woman continued chuckling. His previous statement about her being hot drastically changed to beautiful when he took in this new demeanor. When he said nothing, Paige swam over to Summer to have a nice chat.

Dean, too, swam over to the man and followed his gaze – his eyes were locked on the pale woman, who had the body of a model, and Dean couldn't help but shake his head at this. It wasn't that he didn't like Paige—he thought she was lovely, in fact—he just wasn't sure this was the right move for Seth at the moment since things with AJ were still very much unsolved.

"You are sprung on her," he made sure to say it in a low tone so that the girls couldn't hear. He assumed they were talking about them as well since they kept glancing over occasionally. "Seth, you need to get things sorted with AJ before anything else. You really don't need Paige involved with the psycho."

"Speaking of, she's already texted me this morning to apologize for yesterday – I don't know what she doesn't understand about the we-are-over part. I've made it abundantly clear. I think it's time for the police to get involved."

"Wow! So you're gonna go to Roman again and ask for his help?"

"It's not like I have a choice; I'm not thrilled about asking the guy for help but his cousin is good at this shit. And it's not like he doesn't owe me." Seth rested his head back against the concrete, closing his eyes for a brief moment.

On the other side of the pool, Summer gave the biggest grin when she took in Dean's chiseled chest; what was it about this man that got to her – and in every way possible? He pushed her buttons. He absolutely challenged her and yet she was absolutely smitten. It was weird to admit that since she technically had a boyfriend back in California, but Dolph was doing the exact same thing as she was by meeting new people.

A twinge of guilt stabbed at her when she realized she hadn't mentioned her significant other to her possible prospect. Would that change their dynamic once Dean found out she was unattainable? It's not like she was looking for anything serious since she would be gone in a matter of months, if her and Paige stuck around that long.

Paige latched on to the blonde's stare and snapped her fingers to regain her attention. "What is with you? You've been weird for the last few days. And why are you so enthralled with Dean? I thought you couldn't stand him."

"And I still can't. But we kind of made out the other night when you and Seth sent us on that quest to find firewood." Summer admitted, not even bothered by the fact that her best friend's jaw was as far down as it could possibly go. "He just… I can't think of the proper word right now. He's left me absolutely dumbstruck it's ridiculous." The gleam in the blonde's eyes glistened across the water apparently when Dean felt her gawking at him and returned her stare, a dopey looking grin on his face.

"I've seen that look before," Paige interjected the blonde woman's reverie, smacking her on the shoulder to regain her focus. Summer rubbed her shoulder after it started stinging. "You had that same exact look on your face when you met Dolph. Be careful, Summer. I don't want you getting hurt because your hormones are running wild."

"I am in complete control, okay? It was one time. I seriously doubt it'll happen again." But her words were the least bit convincing when she once again returned her interest over to the shaggy-haired man.

Laughing at how awestruck her friend was, the raven-haired woman caught Seth staring at her, making her all the more self-conscious. Trying her best to return his gesture, Paige wound up failing miserably and hid her embarrassment by dunking herself under the water. She was getting real good at making an ass out of herself.

* * *

><p>Grabbing her cell phone off the dresser in her room, Paige rolled her eyes from all the missed calls: <em>Mom, Wade, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Wade, Wade.<em>

Clearly they would have gotten the point when she hadn't picked up the first or even the second time. She knew she still had to give her ex his answer, but so much had happened in the past couple of days that she hadn't had much chance to think about it and she certainly wasn't ready to be talking to him over the phone. That meant having to hear his voice.

As for her mother – she was in no way ready to start making conversation with the woman who was responsible for what happened to her, for trying to make her out to be crazy after it was all over and done with. Deleting her call log, she tossed her phone onto the bed before being interrupted by a knock on the door.

Looking over, she took in Seth's appearance and made no expression whatsoever – they had been having these moments and she wasn't sure what they meant, but it was obvious that Seth wasn't looking to explore it either. Every time she got around him, her guard came down and it made her all the more vulnerable to him, something that she didn't like.

It was hard to ignore him though in his _Metallica _T-shirt that accentuated his toned arms and those jeans that fit him well in all the right places. Why did he have to be so handsome?

"What's up?" She calmly inquired, perching herself at the edge of her bed, suddenly annoyed when her phone once again buzzed from behind her. Looking to see who the culprit was this time, she put her head down in defeat. "Why won't he leave me alone?"

"Your ex?" Seth was curious. Leaning against the door frame, he folded his arms across his muscular chest. When the pale woman nodded her head, he came forward and grabbed the cell off her bed, pressing a button that she could only assume was the _accept _button. "Hello?"

"_Who's this?" _The thick British accent poured through the other end of the line.

"Seth, Paige's friend. This must be the infamous Wade. Look, she's ignoring your calls right now because she's thinking about what you asked her. The best advice I can give to you is to give her space."

"_And why should I take this advice from someone I don't even know? Paige has never mentioned you before."_

"We share a mutual friend. Did you want to leave a message or something? She's right here so you don't have to worry about me not writing it down." The playful smirk on Seth's face brought a beam out of Paige. She couldn't believe that this was actually happening.

"_Would you tell her that I called and that she can't avoid me forever."_

After saying he would relay the message, the two hung up. "He said you can't avoid him forever." Sitting down beside her, he took in how she tried putting some distance between which amused him. "I take it you're not the kind of girl to be in such close proximity to a guy who you aren't dating."

"No, it's just… guys in general… the majority of them only seek out sex from a woman. Distancing myself is to let them know that I'm not interested." The flashbacks began coming back to her in little parts, from her screams to all the blood that she lost. They hadn't hit her this hard for the longest time; she could still hear the laughter from him, the way he choked her. It was all too much for her.

When she turned even whiter than she already was and started trembling, Seth—not giving a shit at the moment—scooted closer to her and caught her right as she started to fall over, clearly faint from whatever it was she was thinking about. "Paige, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She pulled herself out of his grasp and forced a smile on her face. "I get these spells when I don't eat. You figure I would have got the hint after it happened the first ten times." Standing to her feet, the British woman grabbed her hairbrush and started brushing away at her long locks, looking in the mirror at the vanity table in her room. She hadn't needed it, but it sort of came with the room.

Creeping up behind her, Seth stood there with his arms folded across his chest, obviously unbelieving of her story – he knew she was lying. The inkling in his gut told him that there was something in her past that she was hiding, something that still haunted her today. But he didn't want to pry and make her talk to him when she clearly didn't want to.

When she looked up in the mirror and saw his expression, she frustratingly put down the hairbrush. "I promise you that I'm fine. Nothing a little pizza can't fix. Want to go grab a bite?"

The grin on his face let her know that she was officially off the hook. "Is Paige Knight asking me out on a date?"

Turning into him—he was deliberately right there—her breath hitched in her throat because of how close they were to being skin on skin. Sitting herself on the edge of the vanity table, Paige felt a little bold when she motioned for him to come closer to her by using her finger. After some hesitation, Seth slowly came forward, taking in her devious grin.

"What are you doing, Paige?" He nervously—but very cutely—asked. Clearing his throat, he stood there waiting for her next move, whatever that was. He wasn't sure if it was because their attraction had reached an all-time high or if this was her way of trying to make him forget about what just happened – either way, he was on high alert.

"What does it look like, Seth? I'm toying with you." Hopping off the table, Paige patted him on the chest. "Come on, let's get something to eat. My treat."

What the hell just happened? Had he done something to make her change her mind? Was she simply messing with him to get a rise out of him? He wasn't sure if he should have been upset with her little mind games or intrigued by the challenge.

Unable to fully process it all when Paige came back into the room to find out what the hold up was, Seth broke out of his thought process to put his full attention on her. "You were just toying with me? Really? Because it seemed like you were anticipating something else. That's all I'm saying."

He had an interesting way of turning it into a joke, which caused the raven-haired woman to emit a laugh. "I think we're going to be the best of friends this summer, don't you think?" This time Paige inadvertently placed her hand on Seth's right arm, keeping her calm when she felt his muscle flex beneath her touch.

"You never answered my question. Is this whole getting pizza thing a date? Because I have to tell you that I'm a bit insulted that you would think that I'm a pizza-on-the-first-date type of guy. I prefer to shell out money on flowers and—"

"I am _not _a flowers kind of gal," she chuckled. Technically it wasn't a lie, but technically it wasn't the truth. She had never been given flowers so she had no idea if she was into the idea of getting them on a date. Wade had never done anything romantic like that. "But no, it's not a date. It's just two friends hanging out. Now let's go before I pass out again."

"Whatever you say," he smiled when she pulled him behind her, serious in her quest to fill her stomach. If she weren't cute, he wouldn't have let her drag him around like that. In the meantime, the two-toned hair just inwardly laughed in amusement. Paige was something else.


	9. Let Me In

**A/N: **To be honest, I didn't think I'd make it this far into this story without deleting it. Yay! Thanks for the continuous support.

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><p>It had been a week and the transition had been surprisingly easy for Paige – so far everything seemed as normal as possible. Today was the day she would go and get the tests done from the doctor's office in order to find out whether or not she was Diane's match. Her stomach—however—was in complete knots. The thought of it turning out that she was not wasn't something she was ready to hear.<p>

She hadn't come all this way, hadn't bothered getting to know this woman for it to turn out that there was no hope. Diane and Seth were just as antsy as she was. As they sat in the waiting room, Seth held Paige's hand for moral support, giving it a comforting squeeze in the process.

Mr. Rollins sat on the opposite side of Diane, tightly holding onto her hand. She hadn't had much of a chance to speak to him. He was always at work or busy researching treatments for Diane had the donor thing turned into a bust. Paige, too, had done some research on what kind of tests were going to be run and she had to admit that she was not a fan. But whether or not she was thrilled with them shoving needles into her, this had to get done.

It was obvious that Seth and his father weren't close, just by how little eye contact they had made in the week she had been there. She wondered if it had to do with the death of Seth's sister that drew them apart; it wasn't fair of her to ask considering she too had stuff she didn't like discussing.

"Paige Knight," Diane's doctor came out from the back room, greeting them all with smiles. "I'm Doctor Boyd." Extending her hand to the woman who had come so far to do this for a stranger, Dr. Boyd was pleased when Paige accepted the handshake without any hesitance. "This won't take long."

Being escorted to the back where there were different rooms, Paige took a deep breath before completely disappearing – this was the moment it all came down to.

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><p>Summer Rae found herself outside of Dean Ambrose's apartment complex, contemplating whether or not to go in. They had been avoiding one another for the past couple of days and she wanted to know why – since they both shared mutual friends, they couldn't stay away from each other forever. Buzzing his apartment, she was alarmed when his husky voice came through the intercom speaker. <em>"Hello?"<em>

Clearing her throat for a brief second, she made the choice to stand her ground on this. "Hey, it's Summer, can we talk?"

"_Go ahead." _She knew that he was trying to avoid her by only wanting to talk over the intercom.

"You're not going to let me in? Come on, Dean." When he said nothing, she buzzed his apartment again. "I'm not leaving until I get in. So either you voluntarily let me in or I'll wait it out until the door opens. The choice is yours."

Standing firmly in place, the blonde clicked her heel boots against the cemented ground, waiting for a response. To her surprise, Dean buzzed her in, sounding disgruntled when he told her to come on up. She brushed off his tone and instead put her attention on getting to bottom of what was going on with them.

On her way up the stairs—she picked a bad day to wear heels—Summer ignored the call from Dolph; now he wanted to talk to her? He was the last of her worries for the time being. By the time she made it to Dean's door, he had already beaten her to it, by leaving it open for her.

Upon entering, she took in his flawed face, noticing the bruising underneath his right eye along with the swelling. Setting her purse down on the coffee table, the blonde rushed over to his side. "Oh my God. What happened?"

"It doesn't matter. I had it coming," he turned away from her, trying his hardest to not look her in the eye.

Annoyed by his behavior, Summer put her hand on his face and made him look at her, quite surprised to see how defeated he looked. "Tell me what happened. Why are sporting a black eye, Dean? And don't give me some vague answer."

Placing his hand over hers, he closed his eyes momentarily, taking a deep breath. "I did something stupid before I went to California with Seth – it's actually why I chose to go with him. One of my co-workers, he mentioned he was having issues with his girlfriend and one night I went to a bar downtown and met this amazing woman – we connected. I don't think I had ever had such a strong bond with anyone like that."

That comment stung a bit – Summer truly believed that their bond was pretty damn strong. But maybe he wasn't feeling what she had been.

"We wound up hooking up that night – I'll leave out the dirty details," he chuckled when he took in the blonde's disgusted expression. "When I got off work the next night, Joey—that's the co-worker I mentioned—he said I had slept with his girlfriend and that he was going to beat the shit out of me for it. I was completely caught off guard because the woman I slept with never mentioned she had a boyfriend."

"She played you. It's not your fault, Dean. You didn't know. If someone is in a relationship, they should disclose that information right away." Feeling like a complete hypocrite because she had yet to bring up the fact that she had a boyfriend—even though their situation was too complicated—the blonde made a promise that she would tell him when the time was right. And right now was not the right time.

Resting her head on his shoulder, Summer knew that her perfect little life that she had worked so hard on obtaining for herself was slowly crumbling every moment she let herself get lost in Dean – in reality, they would never work, but something about this town and the time they had spent together made her undeterred.

"What did you want to talk about?" He finally spoke up, taking her away from her current train of thoughts. "You said you wanted to talk over the intercom. Is everything okay?"

"I just wanted to check up on you – I hadn't seen you in a couple of days and I actually missed you." When he gave her a side-glance, she playfully hit his arm. "Don't flatter yourself. It's just easy to talk to you. I love Paige, but she has enough stuff going on that I don't want to bombard her with all my issues."

When her phone loudly rang throughout Dean's living room, Summer put her head down and sighed. She knew exactly who it was and she surprisingly didn't want to talk to him. "I'm so sorry. One of my issues is calling me. Do you mind if I take this elsewhere?"

"Sure. My room's the second door on the left," the shaggy-haired man answered, slightly disappointed by the disruption, but clearly it was important otherwise she wouldn't have answered in the first place. Watching as she snuck off into his bedroom, Dean Ambrose groaned in frustration.

He couldn't help but wonder if maybe Summer was in a relationship and that had been why she'd been so evasive with him. This was actually something that had bothered him when Seth and him had a conversation and brought up Paige's mention of Dolph not being good enough for Summer – clearly it had to mean how it sounded.

He wasn't the kind of guy to hook up with someone's girlfriend—except for his last indiscretion—if he knew they were taken – he may have been a lot of things to a lot of people but he wasn't a home wrecker.

When the blonde came out of his room a couple of seconds later with a sweet smile on her face, Dean sat up straight with a stern look on his face. "I need to ask you something and I know it's none of my business, but here goes. Are you seeing someone? Seth mentioned some guy Dolph so I'm curious."

"There was someone. But we're… not together right now. He was calling to tell me about this new girl he met. I guess he felt like rubbing it in my face." The blonde came over and took her spot beside Dean, feeling guilty for lying to him the way she did. They were still very much together, just seeing other people. And he wasn't calling to tell her about his new girl, Dolph had called to tell Summer how much he loved her.

"Like I said, it's not my business. I was just curious." He nonchalantly said, obviously putting on a façade. Truth be told, he did care – this had been a confusing week for him, but he was definitely besotted with the blonde.

Showing some bravado, Summer leaned up and kissed Dean's sore eye, making sure to trace the outline of his cheekbone afterwards. Scared that she would lose this if she told him the truth, she fought back the tears. It had only been a week or so and she was already lying to him. It was surely bound to go awry sometime. She was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

* * *

><p>Sore. Paige was absolutely sore after all the tests they ran on her. Now she knew how all those people felt after they had been experimented on. Lying in her bed, all the woman remotely had energy for was texting Summer to find out where she was and instead she got nothing.<p>

Making the effort to get up—inwardly hissing from the amount of pain she was in—Paige wandered around the house, trying to find something to do. Had she been back in California she would have gone to her favorite café or the movie theater. But she couldn't do that in Iowa since she had no clue where anything was.

Being the person she was, Paige was willing to take the risk of getting lost as she grabbed her leather jacket from the coat rack and walked out of the house. At this point anywhere was better than being home by herself. Diane and Mr. Rollins had taken off for a nice evening and Seth left without saying a word to anyone.

Twenty minutes later she was down a much crowded street with a lot of little shops that intrigued her – seeing the record store across the street, Paige's face lit up and immediately she made a beeline for it, dodging traffic life a pro.

Once inside, she took in a petite woman screaming at the cashier, "What do you mean he hasn't been in all day? You don't understand. Seth and I meet here every Sunday. It's our tradition."

_Seth. _When she heard his name, her interest automatically piqued. What were the odds that she was talking about _her _Seth? Could she even really claim him? Was the woman at the counter AJ, the psycho ex girlfriend who didn't know when to quit?

When the little woman turned around in frustration, she took in Paige's appearance, clearly aware that she was new to town. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing," Paige put her hands up in surrender, going back to looking at the CD section, feeling the bulging eyes from the woman she assumed was AJ burning a hole through her. She knew getting in an altercation with Seth's ex would do her no favors whatsoever. Of course, AJ wasn't having being ignored, so she made sure to grab the CD out of Paige's hand to get her attention.

"I've been looking for this CD everywhere. Thanks," she gave a sweetly-sick smile to the pale woman, bumping her out of the way to look at the row of CDs that Paige had been going through.

Not one to take such abuse, the British woman took a deep breath and yanked the CD out of AJ's hand. "Seth was right when he said you're crazy. I'll be sure to tell him you say hi." Just like that Paige past up the scorned woman to the front counter to pay for the CD.

At the counter, the manager made a point to talk to her. "That was pretty impressive. You've rendered her speechless. We've been having issues with her for a while. Last week she threw CD's at Seth. Poor guy. Listen how long are you in town for?"

That was an odd question to ask. "What makes you think I'm sticking around town for a while?"

"It's a small town – word gets around pretty fast. You're Diane's daughter. I imagine you'll be here for the summer at least. Am I right?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"We need some help around here – it's the busiest in summer time and by the way you handled things with AJ, you could probably handle what's entailed here too. What do you say? You interested in making some money?"

This was different. She hadn't thought about getting a job until she got back to California – this was actually the perfect job for her. And it wouldn't hurt for her to get some experience in before she made the effort to go out and get herself more of a permanent job.

"Just like that? You're going to hire me without an interview or an application of sorts?" She was a bit hesitant though. It sounded too good to be true.

"I have a good feeling about you. So are you in or are you out?" The manager asked, extending his hand out to the woman.

"In." She said, accepting the handshake. "When can I start?" And just like that she was being brought to the back to fill out some paperwork and got a copy of the keys for the shop. She had to admit, Iowa was turning out to be much more than she had imagined. Maybe this was where she needed to be.

* * *

><p>A couple of hours later, Paige snuck back into the house but wound up nearly having a heart attack when Seth turned on the lamp in the living room. "Good God, Seth. You scared me." She said, a hand over her heart.<p>

"Good. Why haven't you picked up your phone? I've tried calling you about a dozen times. I thought something happened to you. You cannot just walk around in a town you're not familiar with." In the week and a half they had known each other, Seth had never really scolded her until now.

"For your information, I wound up at the record store where I had a nice little run-in with your ex, but I'm sure she already texted you that and that's why you don't look surprised. The manager liked the way I handled myself and offered me a job. I started training tonight." Paige leaned against the wall, arms folded across her chest. "And why do you care so much? You took off and left me alone in a big empty house. I'm the type of person to get bored."

"I went to meet up with a friend before he went to work tonight to ask a favor – his cousin's a cop. I'm getting a restraining order against AJ."

"Why didn't you tell me that? I would have gone with you." Paige slowly walked over to Seth, not sure whether or not to sit down next to him, so instead she perched herself at the edge of the table opposite him.

"Because Roman's not exactly my friend anymore – he owed me though. I didn't want you to see me fighting the urge to punch him in the face." Reaching across for her hands, he sighed. "Have you noticed how much drama you and I carry? People like you and I should not be in relationships. You have all that stuff with Wade and AJ won't leave me alone. Maybe we're meant to be alone."

"I don't believe that, Seth. You're a good person and you deserve to be with someone who appreciates everything about you. I think AJ is finding out the hard way what she lost. I've only known you for a week and a half and as corny as it sounds, I'm glad I met you. You bring out the good in me, which is hard for anyone."

"Well maybe one day you'll tell me why it's so hard to get in here," he pointed to her heart, noticing the way she swallowed hard. "I'm sorry. You've got baggage and that's okay. I do too. I had a little sister, Lizzy. She was the only thing left of my mother I had." He took a deep breath, obviously indicating that this was hard to talk about.

"Hey, you don't have to tell me this, if you don't want to. It's not fair for you to open up to someone who won't do the same."

"I want to. I feel comfortable with you. She was thirteen when she died. I was upstairs, listening to music and studying for this big test I had. She wanted to walk the dog and you would think she's big enough to go on her own, but I always went with her just because. I didn't. I wasn't paying attention and I told her to do what she wanted. The dog saw a cat and started going after it, leading her into the street where she got hit.

"The one time I didn't go with her to keep her safe and she gets hit," he started choking up, making the pale woman more inclined to tighten the grip on his hands. "It was my fault. That's why my Dad and I don't talk. That's why I came to get you. I wanted to fix what I took away from everyone. That's why Roman and I aren't friends anymore. He wasn't there for me. Instead he was focused on his relationship. I never forgave him."

"What happened to Lizzy sucks and I am so sorry for you and your family, but it was not your fault. You couldn't have known that the idiot dog would decide to go crazy that day." When he put his head down, Paige's heart officially broke. "Seth, look at me. Please?"

She hated seeing him like this, so defeated – the fact that he blamed himself for an accident that was out of his control gnawed at her insides. This was a guy that she had grown really attached to in such a short amount of time and this side of him… she wasn't sure what to make of it.

"God, I'm sorry for laying this on your doorstep – I don't know what came over me." He stood to his feet, his sensitive side changing to the closed off side that he had displayed since their first meeting. "Forget what I said."

When he made to leave, she grabbed his arm to stop him. "You don't have to hide from this. I'm here for you. Please don't push me away."

"It's better if I do. Paige, my life… I never got it back after Lizzy died and I don't deserve to have it back. My own father blames me, I know he does. Just leave me alone." He ripped his arm away from her and rushed upstairs to his room, leaving Paige to herself with tears welled up in her eyes.

This night had certainly taken a new a turn. One that was about to change everything in their friendship. The British woman was truly caught off guard and there was no telling when she'd go back to normal – if that were even possible.

It turns out that Seth Rollins was just as fucked up as she was, maybe even worse.


	10. Assumptions

**A/N: **Thank you guys for being awesome and keeping me motivated to continue on with this. You guys rock.

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><p>The next morning, Paige woke up to the sound of her alarm to get ready for her first official day at work – she had to admit she was pretty stoked about it. So much was happening to her and it all seemed to be working out in her favor, which made her apprehensive all at the same time. She had always believed that when things were going well, something was about to go to shit.<p>

After a twenty minute shower, she dressed and made a pit stop by Seth's room to tell him goodbye – only when she let herself in after she knocked a couple of times, she found that his room was empty. Apparently he wasn't up for a chat about their conversation last night, which frustrated her. He couldn't just open up to her like that and then tell her to forget about it only to not be there the next morning.

Looking at the time on her phone, she realized she had more than enough time to make a stop by Dean's to talk to him about Seth. After Diane told Paige that she could use her car, the nineteen-year-old woman was at the shaggy-haired man's place in about five minutes, mostly abiding all the rules of the road along the way – there had been a couple of stop signs she ran when no one was around.

She was surprised when he came outside to greet her, hopping in the passenger's seat. "Seth is up there. He came by at four in the morning. He's a mess. Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"I don't know, to be honest. We were talking about baggage and then he dumped all this stuff about Lizzy on me, told me everything and then completely changed afterwards. He told me to forget what he said. Dean, I'm worried. I think he might be suffering from PTSD – I know because I've been going through it myself. Can you just talk to him?"

Blowing air out of his mouth, Dean covered his mouth with both his hands to try to digest everything – to his knowledge it had been quite a while since Seth had actually brought up Lizzy to anyone so learning this was a little flummoxing.

"What am I supposed to ask him, Paige? I know Seth and if I merely mention Lizzy, he shuts it off – you'd have a better chance of asking him yourself, to be honest. You two have been close lately."

"I would, but he's avoiding me. Can you just try? I don't care if you tell him I talked to you. But if we do nothing, it could get really bad. Come on, you saw what I did last week – I don't want Seth going down that road; the sooner we can talk to him, the sooner we can get this taken care of."

Right as Dean opened his mouth to speak, they were both taken aback when Seth came out of the apartment complex, staring at the vehicle parked a little down the way once he stepped foot on the sidewalk; unsure of what to do, they both ducked at the same time, trying to avoid the inevitable fight that was about to ensue. When they heard a knock on the driver's window, they were well aware that their cover had been blown.

Peeking up, Paige scrunched her eyes, hoping that he would go away once he caught on that she didn't want to talk to him. To no avail, Seth remained still, an amused look on his face. After a few seconds of clarity, she rolled down the window. "What's up?" It was a silly question to ask, but it was the only thing she could think of.

"You tell me. You're sitting here in Diane's car with Dean – now either one of two things is going on. One of them being that you two are having an affair or you're talking about me. Now I'm pretty sure it's not the first option so that leaves the second thing."

"Paige and I could be talking about Summer, Seth. Not everything revolves around you." When Seth didn't buy into it, the shaggy-haired man looked at the woman in the driver's seat and shrugged his shoulders. "I tried. And with that, good luck." He hopped out of the vehicle and went back inside the complex, leaving Seth and Paige to talk.

Upset by how Ambrose up and left her on her own in this situation, the woman took a beat to think of something to say. Seconds later she turned to the man leaning in through her window, trying her hardest to keep her cool. In most situations this wouldn't be an issue, but since Seth had a way of unraveling her simply by his stare, Paige was aware how much harder this was going to be.

"Please don't give me that look, Seth – I can take a lot but when you look at me like that the walls come down." She took her eyes away from him to stare at the steering wheel. "You're having PTSD and before you try to contest that, hear me out. I went through something terrible, something that still haunts me until this day and I thought I had dealt with it until last week when my mother calls me and gives me some news.

"It just kind of brought back everything I had worked so hard to put behind me – it was my way of not trying to deal with it all over again, so I tried to kill myself. But, Seth, if talking about it makes you feel better, don't feel ashamed and ask me to brush it off. I can't. I want to be there for you."

"Okay," was all he said, taking the raven-haired woman by surprise. She hadn't expected to win this argue so easily. Was he just humoring her by agreeing or did he actually mean it?

"Well now that I got that out of the way, I have to go to work. By the way, you never told me that Roman was the manager. Is this going to be a problem for you?"

It was only until this morning when she put two and two together about who her boss actually was – it never fully clicked in her brain when he introduced himself to her. But when she started questioning how he knew so much and Seth brought up Roman, it all became a lot clearer. She was going to talk to her boss about it later to make sure there wasn't a conflict of interest involved in why he hired her.

"I'm shocked you figured it out, to be honest. Truth be told, I thought you were a little naïve to take a job in a place where you hadn't intended to apply but I think it'll be good for you. I'm not thrilled about Roman going on a whim and hiring you for all the wrong reasons though."

"All the wrong reasons? What are you talking about?" Paige was curious by the remark.

"It's so obvious that he hired you to keep tabs on me. Just be on alert. If he starts asking you anything personal, don't answer. You're not required to divulge stuff like that to your boss."

A bit insulted by what he had been implying, Paige put her hand up to his face. "So you think he hired me because he wants to know about your life? It can't just be a thing of he thinks I'm qualified? You have a bigger ego than my ex." Rolling up the window on him, the woman didn't want to hear anymore of the shit he was going to spew out.

Abruptly pulling out onto the road and into the traffic, leaving a dumbfounded Seth Rollins alone, Paige couldn't believe his audacity – she knew she shouldn't have let it get to her, but the fact that it came from him made it all the more harder to hear.

Was that all he thought of her as? A way into his life? If that was the case she wasn't sure how long she intended to stick around. She fumed the whole drive over to the record store.

* * *

><p>Bored now that Paige had taken up a job, Summer Rae went to the only place she knew she could go – instead of buzzing herself in, she rushed when she saw an elderly couple coming out and ushered herself through the door.<p>

Making sure her phone was off this time so there were absolutely no interruptions, the blonde slowly but surely climbed the stairs up to his floor, not feeling as winded this time. Standing outside his door, she conjured up a reason as to why she was there, her claim being that she was in the neighborhood.

Knocking on his door, she heard his voice and someone else's—a female voice—on the other side of it and instantly second guessed her decision in swinging by. When Dean pulled open the door, wearing nothing but a towel and she was able to see the woman sitting on his couch, dressed in hardly anything, Summer looked down at the ground.

He came out, shutting the door behind him. Apparently he was trying to keep the two girls apart – probably because he was sleeping with the woman in his apartment and he was clearly attracted to the blonde in front of him, Summer assumed.

"I should've called. I'm so sorry. I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by and now that I have, I will go now. I'm so sorry." She didn't give him the chance to say anything when she hurried away from him and rushed down the stairs.

"Shit," Dean said, stumped on what to do in this situation. It looked really bad, being cloaked in nothing but a towel and his guest in nothing but her undergarments. How was he going to explain this to her?

Once Summer appeared outside, she leaned against the side of the building fighting back all her tears; what the hell was wrong with her? There was a part of her that truly believed that they were starting up something, just at a really slow pace. Apparently, Dean didn't want the same thing she did.

Turning on her phone, she waited for it to boot up before making a phone call. With trembling hands, she waited for him to answer and when he did, her heart ached. "Don't date other people. I know you hate this distance thing, but I believe in our relationship and I believe in us. Dolph, I love you."

"_I love you too. Paige was right when she said I was going to lose you if I continued being a dick."_

"When did you talk to Paige?" Annoyed to say the least, Summer eventually pushed herself off the building and carried on in walking. Now that she had a direction to go in, the blonde was definitely in need of talking to her best friend about her butting into her relationship.

"_A couple of nights ago – she called because you were upset when I told you about the girl I was seeing. Don't be mad at her. She obviously cares enough to speak up on your behalf. Why didn't you just tell me how you were feeling, babe?"_

"I didn't want to come off as one of those overbearing girlfriends; you were so excited about testing the waters that I wanted to put your happiness before my own. But I miss you and I don't want to share you with anyone else. So can we just keep this exclusive?"

"_Anything for you. How about we put a special time aside each night to Skype one another? I know I miss seeing your face. Hearing your voice isn't doing it for me."_

"Okay, I would actually like that. When I get back to my temporary home, I'll set up an account. Text me later with a time." Hanging up, the blonde felt like a gigantic weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Now that she was officially back together with Dolph, Dean Ambrose was out of the picture. For the time being, anyway.

* * *

><p>"What right did you have to go behind my back and call my boyfriend?" Summer was seething over the betrayal. No matter what reason there was for it, Paige still had no right to do that to her. "Paige, I trusted you."<p>

"I'm sorry, but you were upstairs bawling your eyes out. I couldn't stand by and do nothing because you wanted to handle this on your own. Dolph needs to know that you're not going to be his convenience. Someone had to put him in his place."

Focusing on stocking the CDs she had been handed by Roman, the pale woman paid very little attention to how Summer followed her around. How many times was she going to have to apologize for getting involved in a situation that didn't concern her?

"Paige, can you please stop and talk to me for five minutes? I know this job is important to you and I support that, but I really think we should address the situation at hand. You went behind my back. I don't take that lightly."

Frustrated, Paige set the box on the ground and turned to face her friends, her hands on her hips. "I shouldn't have got involved. That you're correct on. But you can't tell me that you wouldn't have done the same had it been me." Lowering her voice, she continued on. "When I told you about my situation, your first reaction was to kill. It's not about betrayal, Summer. It's about protecting each other because we love each other."

"I'm sorry. You're right. I overreacted."

What was it with people giving up so easily today? Had there been some kind of memo that she never got in the mail or something? It was one thing for Seth to surrender, but Summer was a different story. She always believed she was in the right even when she wasn't.

With no more interruptions, the British woman carried on with the assignment, trying to get it done before the crowd came seeping in like they always did at this time everyday. "Summer, you know you're more than welcome to hang out here but why don't you go hang out with Dean? I'm sure it'd be a lot more fun than following me around for eight hours."

"I already tried. He had some girl over and it looked like they had just finished… you know, so I left. And I called Dolph and expressed how I don't want to see other people, how I want it to be just him and I. We're Skyping later tonight." The biggest smile curved her lips.

"What about Dean? I thought you liked him." Once again, Paige stopped what she was doing to pay attention to her friend. To say she was a bit surprised by Summer's bold move was a tad of an understatement.

"It doesn't matter. He just had sex with someone and I'm not going to wait around for him to get his head out of his ass. Besides, I love Dolph. He's my one and only."

"No he's not. And you know that. I don't even think you love him anymore or you wouldn't be this upset about Dean hooking up with some bimbo." When Roman came out from the back room, Paige sighed. She had to talk to him about what Seth had said. This had been a conversation she wanted to avoid.

The blonde's jaw dropped when the muscular man with the beautiful chiseled face and gorgeous long hair approached them. She had never seen such a God like this in her nineteen years. He smirked when he took in the way Summer was staring at him.

"Summer, this is my boss, Roman Reigns. He's also an old friend of Dean and Seth's." When Paige said his name, the image of that woman sitting on his couch in her bra and panties came rushing back to her. "Say, Roman, Seth said something interesting to me this morning. He said the only reason you hired me is so you can get updates on him. That's not true, right?"

Lightly chuckling, the built man kept his eyes on the leggy blonde, completely mesmerized. "It's definitely not true. I meant what I said when I said you can handle what this job entails. You're doing a good job so far."

Now she knew he was being patronizing considering she hadn't done much of anything and they had barely opened about a half hour ago. She appreciated the compliment though. Getting back to work, the British woman inwardly laughed at the way her friend and Roman were eyeing each other down.

Didn't her friend just make the ultimate commitment with her boyfriend? Sometimes Summer's logic completely flabbergasted her. This was not going to do anyone any favors. Interjecting, Paige grabbed Summer by the arm, "I need to borrow her for a moment." She gave a cheeky smile.

When Roman disappeared out of sight, Paige smacked her on the arm. "Promise me you won't make a move on my boss until you get things sorted with Dean and Dolph. I do not want to be involved in this sexual fairytale of yours."

"You're going to tell me that you haven't checked out your boss?" When Paige slightly blushed, Summer grinned. "You should go for it. I get that you're scared, but ask him out."

"I can't. He's my boss and it's illegal. Plus, I wouldn't feel right doing that to Seth." Seeing the confused look on her friend's face, Paige simply waved her hand. "It's a long story. Besides, I'm pretty sure Roman just spent the past five minutes checking you out." When they looked over at the man at the counter, they caught him staring at the blonde.

"I'm being tested. I will not stray in this relationship with Dolph. I'm not a cheater, but I really want to suck Roman's lips off. Does that count as infidelity?"

Putting a hand to her forehead, Paige simply glared at her friend. "Do not do anything until you figure out what you're going to do with both of the men in your life. Promise me, Summer."

She hadn't time to answer when Dean came barreling through the door, looking around for Summer. The minute she saw that, she ducked down, trying to avoid him. When he approached Paige, the blonde made her escape. "Do you know where Summer is?"

"I can honestly say I don't." Well at least it wasn't a lie. She always felt guilty when she had to lie to cover someone's ass. Summer was going to hear about this later.

"Fuck! I've been calling her for over an hour and she isn't picking up. It was a big misunderstanding that I need to explain." He was rambling so much that he started sounding incoherent.

"Okay, you two make absolutely no sense to me. If you like her, why not be a man and just ask her out already? I'm so sick of you two going back and forth. Summer likes you Dean – I don't think I've seen her so smitten."

After spending a couple of minutes thinking it over, Dean silently left the shop, saluting Roman on his way out – regardless of how he felt about the guy, they were close once upon a time. Of course he wasn't the one that Roman screwed over.

Today had been a strange one at that. Paige could only assume that tomorrow would be a lot better and that maybe Seth would stop being such an arrogant prick and just admit that he was jealous over her working with Roman. But it was still early and anything could change.


	11. Everything Changes

**A/N: **Um, this is one of the chapters I'm worried about. I still hope you like it though.

* * *

><p>To Paige's surprise, her eight-hour shift was already coming to an end – she must've been having a lot more fun than usual. As it approached six thirty in the evening, she was still upset about her run-in with Seth and how he spoke to her, like she was some kind of trophy. There was no easy way to bring up their conversation without another argument ensuing.<p>

Not to mention, Summer was doing everything in her power to avoid Dean so it was clear that she wouldn't be home tonight until that thing blew over. She had more than enough money to get herself a hotel room for a couple of nights. Avoiding the two-toned hair man was going to be a much bigger challenge now that one less person was out of the way.

"Good job today, Paige," Roman's voice echoed through her ears but it still wasn't enough to take her away from her current train of thought. Snapping his fingers in front of her face, he chuckled when she blinked out of it, looking embarrassed. "Already daydreaming on the job. Typical."

Making a smacking sound, the pale woman merely smiled at her boss's witty remark – she could tell that working with him was going to be a breeze. "You sure you don't want me to hang around until you close up at eight? I really don't mind. It's only an hour and a half and I have nowhere to be."

"Paige, as much as I appreciate your dedication, why do I get the feeling you're using me as a way to avoid Seth? Look, I know what he said was hurtful but you can't really blame the guy for thinking the worst. Nothing good has ever really happened to him. He just braces himself for possible collateral damage."

"What happened with you two? He was very vague on that part." Leaning over the counter, placing a hand underneath her chin, the British woman stared up at Roman, curious.

"It's not my place to tell you – our friendship is already strained because I was an idiot. If I tell someone who he clearly has an interest in—" He was forcefully cut off when Paige put a hand up to his face, something Summer had rubbed off on her.

"Interest in? We've only known each other for about a week and a half. There's no way you can develop feelings for someone that quickly – unless you're Summer and Dean. But they're the exception. Honest to God, Seth is not taken with me at all."

"That's not what I hear," the muscular man teased his employee, pulling back his hair into a loose ponytail.

"What do you hear exactly and by who?" Now she was intrigued. There was only one possible way that Roman could have heard anything and that was if Seth had mentioned something to Dean and the latter came and filled the Samoan in on stuff.

And if Seth had mentioned something to Dean then that meant that he did like her – but why did he keep backing out when they started to have a moment?"

"Don't shoot the messenger, okay? Dean and I talk from time to time—he seemingly forgave me for being an idiot—and a couple of days ago he mentioned you and Seth and how you two have been spending a lot time together."

"And?"

"Seth brought up the night where you bandaged up his head and you two were inches away from kissing and he chickened out because he knows about that guy waiting for you in California, the British dude. Plus he wasn't sure if that's what you wanted. Being a gentleman isn't something he's used to so I would say that if you do like him, then you should at least initiate something to show it."

When Roman saw that daydream look in her eyes, he nodded his head at her and got back to putting out more merchandise; as much as he liked speaking to Paige, he felt like this was a time to let her digest what he had just told her – and if it meant that his friend would ultimately find the happiness that he had always deserved then he was onboard with playing Cupid.

Paige, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do because she wasn't sure if her attraction to Seth was simply physical or if it was something deeper below the surface. This was not what she had signed up for when she came to Iowa for Diane.

All she really wanted to do was text her blonde friend to get some advice, but since that was out of the question considering Summer was having boy issues of her own, she came to the conclusion that she was on her own. Or she could talk to Dean. As much as the first option seemed way more appealing to her, the second choice haunted her.

Ultimately deciding on what to do, Paige clocked out for the night and waved goodbye to Roman, making sure to let him know that she would be there bright and early in the morning. There was a stop she had to make before going back home.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, Paige pulled up to the apartment complex, much like she had done so earlier in the day. Sitting in the car for a couple more minutes until she decided how to ask Dean about this, she took a deep breath and hopped out, making sure to lock up Diane's car. The last thing she needed was for someone to hijack it.<p>

It hadn't dawned on her that there was the slightest possibility that he was at work and that this whole visit was a complete waste of time. But the only way she would ever be sure was if she tried. When she called him on the intercom, she wasn't greeted with a voice. She was greeted with the silence of someone answering, but not saying a thing.

"Dean? You there?" Again there was no answer. But someone was definitely there. "Look, I know you're upset about Summer and I honestly don't know where she is. I haven't heard from her. I need some advice on Seth. I feel awkward saying all this over a pesky little voice box so it would be nice if you let me in."

Waiting on him to say something or to let her in, she wound up emitting a defeated sigh; it was clear that Dean was in no mood for any company. Putting her head down, Paige eventually sauntered over to the vehicle and rested against the side of it, praying that he'd change his mind.

Only her shock came when she saw Dean Ambrose walking down the sidewalk, clearly a mess from his workday. When he took in her presence, he knew something was wrong. "How long have you been waiting?"

"About five minutes. I thought you were home and just not in a talking mood. I've been calling you over the intercom and someone was definitely picking up." Looking back at the complex in confusion, she looked up, quite annoyed that she hadn't put two and two together. "Seth's there, isn't he? Oh God, that means he heard what I said."

"What did you say?" Dean motioned for the woman to follow behind him, opening up the front door for her, allowing her entry.

"That I needed your advice on him. Roman told me about that little conversation that you and Seth had about what almost ensued between us. And I wanted to talk to you about that."

As they climbed the stairway, Paige blew air out of her mouth. The woman's heart began racing once they reached the top two minutes later and headed towards the door, not prepared for having to explain what she needed advice on. It would be so easy to make up an excuse, to say that she came to see Dean about Seth's remarks from earlier in the day, but that didn't sit right with her.

Once Dean let the both of them in, the raven-haired woman wasn't all too surprised when Seth stood up from the couch to greet them, his curious eyes eventually resting on her. "So I guess I'm busted?" He teased her. In most cases she would have laughed but since this had been nothing short of humiliation on her part, all she did was keep her eyes off him. "I have to admit that listening to you ask Dean for advice on me was quite amusing."

Still refusing to look directly at him, the British woman ran her fingers through her long locks, trying her hardest to not let him get to her. She wasn't one to back down from what she started. If Seth wanted to play the role of a douche, then she could play that game too.

"Yeah, he's real easy to talk to. Since I can't get a hold of Summer, Dean was the only other person I could go to." That last jab was to purposely get under his skin since he had initially said from the get-go that she could always talk to him. When he showed no emotion from her comment, she folded her arms across her chest.

"Summer's gone? Oh no." He feigned disappointment, but it was more or less a way to piss her off. "She probably got fed up with you and your constant oblivion. Plus you whine way too much."

"Come to think of it, Seth," she finally diverted angry eyes to him, making him slightly more uncomfortable, "AJ dropped by today and we had a lovely chat." Okay, so that wasn't exactly the truth, but she wanted him to know that she could be just as spiteful as he wanted to act. "She told me a lot about that relationship and now that I think about it, I actually sympathize with that poor woman. I mean it's no wonder why you were the laughing stock in that relationship."

"Well I can easily see why Diane opted to give you up for adoption – you probably would have drove her mad." He realized he went too far when he saw the tears well up in her eyes. "Oh God, I didn't mean that. I'm so so—" His apology got cut short when Paige's hand flew across his face, a sound that drove Dean out from his kitchen to see what had just happened.

"You don't know anything, Seth. You don't know what I've been through. I hate you, you jerk. That answers my question on my feelings for you." Grabbing her bag off the ground, she rushed out of the apartment. In such a rush, the woman wound up tripping over her feet, causing her to tumble down the stairs.

"Call an ambulance," Seth shouted, rushing towards Paige's limp body, curled up in a ball on one of the landings. "Paige, come on, stay with me." The blood coming from the corner of her forehead told another story. "I'm sorry."

Soon Dean was by her side, trying his best to keep his friend calm in the process. Moments later when the ambulance arrived, Dean and Seth followed behind in Diane's car, the latter making a phone call to Diane to fill her in on what happened. The fall was bad and if something happened to Paige because he was being stupid, he'd never forgive himself.

* * *

><p>Running through the glass doors, a flurry of blonde locks nearly blinded people as she searched for Dean and Seth. After searching high and low, she finally stumbled upon Diane and stopped in her tracks. "Where is she?"<p>

"Down the hall. Dean and Seth are in the waiting room until we hear something." A worried Diane said, trying her hardest to not break down at the sight of her daughter being hospitalized.

"Thank you," Summer took off, wiping her eyes. A few seconds later, she found the two guys who looked like hell. "What happened?"

Hugging Seth first, Summer rubbed his back to try to make him feel better. Then finally, she hugged Dean before completely breaking down. When he held onto her, he kissed her cheek. "She's going to be fine," he reassured her.

Taking a seat between the two guys, the blonde covered her mouth as Seth filled her in what happened and what got said – instead of being upset and blaming him, all she could do was comfort him and constantly remind him that it wasn't her fault.

When the Doctor came out, the three stood and Diane and Mr. Rollins came over to them. "Paige is going to be fine. She just took a bad fall. She has a little concussion and that cut on her forehead will heal in a couple of weeks."

Relief swept through Seth, immediately thankful that he hadn't screwed this up. When Diane draped an arm over his shoulders, he sighed. "I'm sorry, Diane. It's my fault."

"Something tells me that the argument you two had could have been prevented had Paige not provoked you. She's got my mouth. But you, young man, I'm disappointed that you used that topic to hurt her. That's not going to win her over." Kissing his cheek, the sick woman went into the hospital room to see her daughter afterwards, Mr. Rollins in tow.

As the hours ticked by, Seth, Dean and Summer all waited until they were allowed to see their friend, the doctors and nurses being persistent on only family visiting. The blonde bulged her eyes out when she saw on her phone that Dolph and Wade were both in Iowa after she texted the former about Paige's accident. Dolph's private jet really came in handy.

This was not how she wanted Dean to find out about Dolph and this was definitely something that Paige didn't need – her ex showing up out of the blue, putting a halt on whatever it was that was going on with Seth and her. There was so much backlash that she was not ready to be handed.

"Shit," covering her eyes, it wasn't enough to get rid of Dolph and Wade walking through the front entrance, looking like they too had been through hell and back. Looking at Dean, she said, "This was not how I wanted to handle this. I'm sorry."

He wasn't sure what she was talking about until she walked over and greeted a peroxide-haired man and a taller man with dark hair and dark eyes. But when the blonde pulled her into a quick peck on the lips, he instantly pieced it together. Dawning on him that she lied to him when he asked her if she had a boyfriend, Dean rose to his feet to greet him, trying to be a mature adult. They were in a hospital after all.

But this was far from over, the imminent fight between him and the blonde woman.

"Dolph. Wade. This is Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins."

The name Wade made Seth look up – so this was Paige's ex? The one who was supposed to be giving her space to figure things out? He knew that he meant well by showing up—which he was confused on how the hell they got there so fast—but this put a wrench in everything him and Paige related until Wade was gone.

"You guys must've been close by to get here so fast," Seth commented, nonchalant when he caught Wade's glare on him. He knew a battle over Paige's affections would eventually ensue and he was not going to back down from it.

"Actually we were. You see, Paige and I are on the verge of getting back together and after that phone call the other day, I realized that no distance between us would let her properly think everything through. That was when Dolph called me this morning after talking to Summer about surprising her this evening. I asked to tag along and he said I could."

"And when you texted me while we were about halfway here, babe, to tell me about Paige, we came as fast as we could. Is she okay though? What happened?"

The funny thing was that Wade was supposed to be so concerned about Paige's well-being that he hadn't even asked whether or not she was okay. That didn't sit right with Seth.

"I'm gonna get something to drink," Dean said, not surprised when no one else but Seth heard him. He was just looking for an excuse to get away from the blonde sucking face with her boyfriend, still pissed off that she lied to him in the first place.

When he was at the vending machine, he pressed his forehead up against the machine, restraining himself from kicking it out of anger. This was not supposed to happen. Everything Summer told him was a lie and Paige hadn't given him any kind of warning whatsoever. Had he known the truth, he would have never let himself get so attached in the week and a half they had known each other.

And this Wade guy was an even bigger douche, with his smug smirk and his condescending tone. What the hell did Paige ever see in him? When someone tapped him on the shoulder, he sighed, knowing exactly who it was.

"I'm sorry I lied. But technically Dolph and I were on a break until this morning after I walked in on you and that bimbo and I begged Dolph for it to be just him and me. I should have told you the truth. But I freaked out."

He still hadn't turned around to look at her. He was way too hurt by the lies – how could he even be sure that Summer meant what she said about having feelings for him? It hadn't been that long, but Dean honestly thought that she was different except it turned out she was just like every other woman he had been with.

"Please say something. I didn't know Dolph was coming. Dean, what do you want me to say to fix this – to fix us?" Her voice cracked towards the end, showing just how desperate she truly was. But it didn't matter. "Dean, I'm sorry. If you hadn't slept with that girl…"

"I never slept with her – you assumed I did, which clearly means that you don't know me at all. She's an old friend of mine and she was in town visiting. We were out walking when a truck came by and splashed us with muddy water. We went back to my place to clean up and that's why we were half-naked. She has a boyfriend named PJ." He finally turned around to look at her, a fake smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, Dean. I never wanted to hurt you."

"Why are you apologizing? So you lied. Big deal. It's fine. I mean, we're friends. You're entitled to have a boyfriend." He hated having to do this but he didn't want to sound like an ass, especially since they had just barely met. Besides, did he really think he stood a chance with someone like her?

"Wait, what? I thought we were attracted to each other or did you lead me on?"

Good. He was getting her upset, giving her all the more reason to stay away from him so his feelings for her could go away as soon as he got them in check. "I am attracted to you, but that doesn't mean I want to jump into a relationship. I'm sorry that you got the wrong impression."

"Wow! You are absolutely unbelievable. I can't believe I ever liked you. You don't have a morsel of respect in you. Goodbye, Dean. And good luck." With that she turned on her heel and strutted away from him, probably going back to the boyfriend she conveniently forgot to mention in the first place.

As hard as it was for him, he knew this was the right thing to do. Now he could enjoy the rest of the summer without the blonde being everywhere he was. Instead of going back over to the others, he made his escape through one of the side doors, pulling out a cigarette once outside. It was his way of staying calm in a situation like this.

"Cigarettes kill," a familiar voice called out to him.

"AJ Lee, I don't think I've ever been glad to see you in my entire life," he smirked at the crazy woman when she came into view.


	12. The After

**A/N: **I kind of left the last chapter on a cliffhanger. All answers will be revealed soon.

* * *

><p>The next couple of days flew by in such a blur for Paige – after being released from the hospital the day before yesterday and getting a text from Roman that said he missed her company at the shop but for her to focus on a full recovery before coming back. Thank God she had such an understanding boss.<p>

Seth had barely been home, probably feeling guilt from the accident. That or because Wade had been hanging around and he didn't want to be there to see that; taking a deep breath when her ex knocked on her bedroom door, Paige turned to greet him with a tiny smile. Him being here just bothered her in ways it shouldn't have.

"Hey." What she really wanted to say was, "You're here again?" But she didn't want to be mean and kept that thought to herself. She knew why he was there and what his game plan was, she just didn't have the strength to call him out on his intentions.

"Hey, so are you up for a picnic in the park? It's such a gorgeous day outside." She appreciated him for being here for her though when everyone else was seemingly avoiding her. Summer was off spending time with Dolph before he took off. Dean hadn't come around much since Dolph came into the picture. And Seth had fallen off the grid and God knows where he was.

"Sure," she answered as sweetly as possible but the whole time her mind kept wandering back to the person she had wanted to talk to, to apologize for everything she said. Had she not kept their argument going, she would have never fallen down the stairs – though it still wouldn't have changed the Wade situation since he had already planned to visit her. But at least they would have been on talking terms.

Grabbing her cell phone off the vanity, she tucked it into the pocket of her jeans, hoping to get a response from Seth. When Wade draped a protective arm over her shoulders, she should have flinched but instead she went with it. All in all, he was a good guy, just very misguided in his attempts to win her over.

Once they stepped outside, he escorted her over to the car he had rented, opening the door for her. At least he knew how to act like a gentleman considering. When he started the car, she simply turned her head to stare out the window.

It wasn't that she was upset that he was there, as a matter of fact she was grateful, she just hadn't had a day to herself since the accident. Plus, she hadn't heard back from her mother's doctor to find out whether or not she was a match. It would be any day now and it made her antsy.

There were a ton of things weighing heavy on her, none of which she could talk to Wade about – he didn't know all the details. He just knew about Diane being her birth mom and that was it. She didn't tell him about Diane's sickness and that she could potentially save her life. And she most definitely couldn't talk to him about Seth since he was trying to get back together with her.

When they pulled up to the park, she hopped out when she took glimpse of a man with two-toned hair and felt relief sweep through her. "Hey, I'll be right back." She didn't give her ex much of a chance to say anything.

Creeping up beside him, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest, she could tell how tense it was between them. "It's not your fault. I'm the one who started it. I never saw AJ – I was just trying to hurt you. It's actually kind of funny how karma kicked in immediately afterwards."

"It's not funny, Paige. The whole time you were in that room all I wanted was to be there by your side and to hold your hand, but I couldn't because of what happened and because Wade—your knight in shining armor—showed up. And I don't want to be a jerk and say that you can't hang out with him since I have no authority over who you are allowed to associate with, but…"

"I know. When I went to see Dean that night, I was going to ask him about how you felt about me. Roman had a conversation with him and brought up the night when I took care of you after AJ went psycho on you. But then you started acting like someone else and everything changed."

"You've been here for two fucking weeks and you're already screwing with my mind – do you know how that makes me feel? I'm trying to do the right thing and back off for all kinds of reasons, one being that you're my stepsister."

"I never meant to fuck with your head, Seth. I've been nothing but real with you. But you keep pushing me away and I don't know what to do." Standing to her feet, she glared down at him once more before heading back over to where Wade was waiting very impatiently for her.

"Seth's been very evasive since you've been home. Is the lad okay?" It was easy to detect how little he cared about the man, but at least he was making an effort to accept this new life of hers.

"I don't know. But Seth is the least of my worries." She reached over and grabbed a hold of Wade's hand. "I'm really glad you're here. It's nice to have someone other than Summer to talk to – Dean and Seth are great, but they're still strangers."

When the British man leaned in to kiss the woman, her phone thankfully went off, interrupting his chance. "Sorry, I need to take this. Hello?" She once again hopped to her feet to go a little bit off in the distance. "So what happens now? Does Diane know? Thanks anyway." Then she hung up, tears falling down her face.

When she came back over to Wade, he knew something was wrong. "Is everything okay?"

"I need to go home. Now! Family emergency." Running into the distance, past Wade's car, past the random group of teenagers staring her down like she was crazy, she kept going as fast as she could, the breeze blowing throughout her hair.

It wasn't long until a familiar Tahoe pulled up beside her. Clearly he had gotten the same phone call as she had because the look on his face could only be described as defeated. "Get in!" He shouted at her, but when she ignored him, he stopped in the middle of the road and went after her. "Paige, get in the car now!"

Sinking to her knees, the British woman did the only thing that seemed natural for her and let out the loudest scream she could before completely breaking down. "Don't touch me, Seth," she smacked his hand away from her. "She's going to die."

"There are still other options. Don't lose faith, Paige." He was doing his best to not reach out and hold her like he had initially yearned to do. Not only was it the most inappropriate time to do so, but it would also contradict what he had just told her ten minutes ago about them being stepsiblings.

"I never had any faith to begin with – we knew from the start that there was a chance that this whole thing, me coming here, would be a complete waste of time." She moved some hair out from her face, wiping the wet stains on her cheeks. She only allowed herself a certain amount of time to cry and it turned out she had exceeded the limit she made.

Slowly getting up from the street, Paige brushed off her jeans and stared down Seth. Nothing got said, however, because Wade had come looking for his ex and when he found her, he pulled her away from the Iowa native and helped her into his car, telling her that everything was going to be okay.

Seth watched on as he pulled around his car and carried on. "This guy's gonna be a problem," he said to no one in particular, covering his face with his hands. He didn't understand how Wade could make a situation that didn't pertain to him about him. Frustrated, he emitted a groan and got back inside his car, rushing home to comfort his dad and stepmother. That was his first priority.

His feelings for Paige would just have to be put on hold until things got sorted – Wade being one of them. It was absolutely pivotal though that the British man understood that Diane was going to need Paige now more than ever. So these little plans he had made for the two of them would just have to wait until she got back to California.

* * *

><p>It felt nice being able to be hand-in-hand with the guy she realized she was meant to be with – Dean had only clouded her good judgment and now that he had laid his intentions out on the table, Summer knew that she didn't want to partake in any sexual activities.<p>

Dolph, on the other hand, flew from Florida to surprise her; if that wasn't love then she wasn't sure what was anymore. As they walked down the packed streets, the blonde showing her boyfriend around town, they wound up at the record shop where Paige worked. Almost protesting when she saw Roman at the counter, the leggy blonde mustered up the courage to walk in when her boyfriend pleaded with her.

"Paige works here. Her boss, Roman, is really cool," she spoke up, nodding to the Samoan when he drank her in with those wondrous eyes of his. It was going to be awkward for her if the guy in question brought up the way they flirted the other day.

"Looks like he's cute too, huh?" He nudged his girlfriend, slowly scanning the selection of CD's, making sure he didn't miss any that he might not have. "So Davenport is really… different than what we're used to in California. How are you not bored yet?"

_Dean. _But she couldn't answer with that because then that meant she had to fill her boyfriend in on their very brief romance. It had been a week since she last saw him and she had to admit that she missed their banter. She missed being able to talk to him about what was on her mind. She just missed him. But he had made it perfectly clear that he was not looking for something more than a random hookup and she wasn't that kind of girl.

There had been a couple of times—moments of weaknesses, as she referred them as—when she had wanted to drop by just to check on him – there were even a couple of text messages in her drafts that she hadn't sent because she wasn't sure about whether or not it was a good idea.

It was hard to browse the selection of music without the self-proclaimed "Lunatic Fringe" running through her mind repeatedly. She hated that she couldn't even focus on her boyfriend because all she could think about was Dean – her desire for him was growing stronger by the minute. As if on cue, her heart stopped beating temporarily when he walked through the door with a female in tow.

She knew exactly who the woman was but she was more curious as to why Dean was with her – to her knowledge, he had no love for the woman who made a joke out of his best friend. Remaining surprisingly calm when the couple was on the opposite side of her and Dolph, it took every fiber in her being to not look up at him, even though she knew he was staring.

Instead she maintained her attention on the CD's in front of her though it got a lot harder when Dean rounded the aisle and wound up beside her, close enough to where she could feel his breath on her neck. Her fidgeting fingers hindered her ability to pick up a Drake album, making it all the more obvious that he made her nervous.

Tucking some of her blonde hair behind her ears, Summer easily scooted over, trying to deflect a possible scene. But when he purposely scooted right beside her again, she knew it was unavoidable. "What do you want?" She queried in her most annoyed voice, even though she was glad to be talking to him again. He didn't have to know that though.

"Oh, just to annoy you as much as possible. What happened to Dick?"

"His name is Dolph and he probably took off once he saw the psycho and the lunatic enter. What are you doing hanging with AJ?"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't. I just thought you had respect for your friends to not date their exes but I guess every good quality I believed you had was all in my head," she hadn't looked at him yet, knowing that once she did, there would be no turning back. She wanted to stand her ground on this one.

"Is someone jealous?" He was more amused than anything else. "Would you at least grace me with a smile?"

Refusing, she kept on flipping through CD's. "I'm not jealous. You're the one who told me that whatever we had was strictly physical. So unless you give me a reason to partake in anything with you, I suggest you leave me alone."

Giving up, the blonde finally laid eyes on her boyfriend, taking off from her conversation with Dean to greet him. Only when she greeted him with a kiss on the cheek, her eyes betrayed her and wound up searching for Dean's reaction. When she saw how he turned away, she felt guilt creep up on her and she didn't understand why.

This was a guy who couldn't find his balls and just straight up tell her how he was feeling and the minute her boyfriend came into the picture, he bailed on what could have been. Granted, she didn't know any of this. To her, this was a guy who only planned on making her his booty call whenever he got an itch he couldn't scratch.

When AJ walked by, Summer reached out and grabbed her by the arm, shocking both the woman and her boyfriend. "So you jump from Seth to Dean? Is that how you operate in that twisted little brain of yours?"

"Let go of me," AJ barked, motioning for Dean to come over and help her. Oh he did. Just at a really slow pace. "What is your problem? And who are you? How do you know Seth?"

"I'm Summer – I'm a friend of Paige's, the woman who put you in your place last week. Seth is her stepbrother, so that's how I know him. Would you like me to give him the message that you're fucking his best friend to get to him or is this something I should record on my phone?" Folding her arms across her ample chest, the blonde creased an eyebrow while waiting for a reply.

"Calm down, blondie," Dean spat out once he reached the angry woman. "AJ was outside the hospital the night of Paige's accident. We've been hanging out because she wants to get over Seth. I'm her way of keeping herself occupied."

"You realize that makes absolutely no sense, right? She can't hang out with someone else to get over Seth? Dean, you are so much smarter than this. Why are you going to let Psycho Barbie put a strain on your friendship with Seth because you know that's what's going to happen?"

"Babe, maybe you should calm down," Dolph said into Summer's ear. "I'm sure Dean knows what he's doing. Besides, why do you care?"

"Yeah, Summer, why do you care?" He was smug in his question, folding his arms. All she had to do was say that she was jealous and he would drop the façade of not wanting to be with her. The ball was in her court, so to speak.

"Because Seth is important to Paige and… they're supposed to be best friends. And best friend etiquette states that you do not associate with an ex unless they're on good terms. Seth and AJ are not. Last time she saw him, she threw a CD at his head." Summer explained and it actually sounded more believable than she thought it would. "Now if you'll excuse me. I'm going to pay for this so we can leave and go back to your hotel room."

That last portion was blatantly to hurt Dean for being the way he was. Flipping her hair over her shoulders, she went up to Roman and paid for her item, Dolph shrugging his shoulders at the pair in front of him. "Sorry. Good to see you again though," he said before taking off after his girlfriend, eager to get some alone time with her.

Watching as the pair seductively looked at each other on their way out, Ambrose wound up pushing over a display in anger. "Hey, man!" Roman shouted at him, Dean not caring about the destruction. Ditching a confused AJ and an even more confused Roman, he took off down the sidewalk, needing to find someway to get Summer Rae off his brain. And he needed to do so fast.

* * *

><p>He hated being on the outside looking in but that's all Seth Rollins could do as Wade comforted Paige in her room, on her bed, as she rested her head on his lap, bawling her eyes out. This was supposed to be family time, but his dad was upstairs researching those other options and Diane was staying overnight at the hospital once she passed out from the news.<p>

As he sat in the chair opposite Paige and Wade, he clasped his hands together, trying to think of ways to make the woman feel better. "I can't believe this is happening."

"How's your dad holding up? He seemed upset when I walked Paige inside. I can't even imagine how he's feeling."

"He's locked himself in his room, looking at other options. But I know he's hurting. The last time he got like this was when my little sister died."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know." Wade was absolutely sincere in his condolence, which made Seth all the more leery about him. Was this a way of gaining Seth's trust so that he could move in on Paige or was he just a nice guy despite the fact that he had cheated on the woman?

"I'm glad that you two are getting the chance to talk," Paige finally spoke up through her tears, sitting up soon afterwards, clasping onto Wade's hand, something that Seth drank in. "You think your dad will find something remotely hopeful for Diane? She's my mother and the thought of failing is making me sick to my stomach."

"That's the first time you've acknowledged her as your mother."

"Well I don't think referring to her as Lady-Who-Gave-Me-Up is appropriate for this moment. Despite my personal opinion, she did give me life. She could have aborted me." Turning to Wade, she smiled. "Thank you for today, but I think it's time for you to leave. I'm gonna turn in for the night."

"Okay, I'll call you tomorrow so you can take me to the airport with Dolph," he kissed her cheek. When he reached Seth, he extended a hand to him. "If she needs me, let me know."

Surprisingly, Seth accepted the gesture and wound up shaking his hand. "You know that I'll take care of her when you leave tomorrow, right?"

"I do now. Good night, mate," Wade replied before parting. And the minute the two of them heard the front door shut, they looked at each other.

"I'll let you rest," Seth said, coming over to tuck her in. When she was underneath the covers, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight, Paige."

"Stay," she weakly cried out. "I don't want to be alone."

"Why didn't you ask Wade to stay?" He asked nervously.

"Because I didn't want him to stay. I want _you _to stay with me. Just for the night." Scooting over in her bed, the woman untucked herself and motioned for the man to join her. "Please?"

Had she not sounded so desperate, he probably would've ignored her request; since he absolutely hated seeing her in this shape, Seth sucked in a breath and slowly got into bed with the woman, not sure what to do next.

When she cozied up next to him, he gently wrapped his arms around her and held her, aware of the fact that this wasn't his plan of backing off of her. Seconds later, she was out like a light and all he could do was watch her sleep with a smile.

Hours later, he dozed off himself – considering the amount of hell they had been through that day, it was the best sleep they had gotten in a long time.


	13. Push You Away

**A/N: **Can I just say I love writing Paige and Seth and all of the adorableness that comes with them? Thank you guys for carrying on in reading this when it can be boring at times. You're the best.

* * *

><p>When dawn came the next morning, Paige was already awake, but still very content in the arms of Seth – he was absolutely adorable when he slept. He had been the reason as to why she was able to get through last night and she was so grateful.<p>

Snuggling into his chest, she took in his scent – even in sleep did he smell good. Two weeks was all it took for her to get so invested in this beautiful man with the biggest heart. She knew it was insane feeling the way she felt in such a short amount of time, but she was in no control over her heart. And after Wade left today and was out of the picture for the time being, she had planned on possibly taking that leap she needed.

Tracing the outline of his chest through his black tee, she smiled when he opened his eyes and caught her. "I got bored."

"You got bored so you started tracing your fingers over my chest? That makes a lot of sense," he teased her, taking her hand in his before giving it a quick kiss. "You feeling better this morning?"

"A little. Still scared shitless, but I think the best thing we can do right now is be there for Diane. I know I said I would leave afterwards, but I can't. I want to get to know her better. And you." The British woman whispered, clearly tired.

"And me? I'm not that interesting. I grew up here and I'll probably die here," Seth rolled over on his back, staring up at the ceiling, still holding Paige's hand. "You know what's ironic? USC was the first college I wanted to check out when I graduated but college is expensive and after everything with my dad, I couldn't ask him to fund me that kind of cash."

"Do you think, had you gone to USC, that we would have been friends?"

"I don't know. It's hard to say. You didn't really like me when we first met. Who's to say you would've liked me that time around?" Groaning when he saw the time on the clock, he looked at her. "What time do you see Wade and Dolph off?"

"In a couple of hours. Dolph's father needs the plane back today." She rolled her eyes. She understood how Dolph and Summer hit it off so easily, but the blonde man was way more high maintenance than the woman was, constantly showing off how rich he was. While it wasn't exactly a turn off for her blonde friend, she could see how annoyed she'd get when Dolph went in extravagant mode.

"We should probably get up before Summer or someone busts in on us and get the wrong impression." Slowly rolling out of Paige's bed, he stayed perched at the edge waiting for her to say something. When she didn't, he sighed. "Last night meant a lot to me, Paige, but… we're family… kind of. We can't let it go any further than the occasional cuddling."

Pursing her lips together, Paige just rolled over on her side, upset that he was pushing her away again. "You keep saying that and we always wind up crossing the line, no matter how little it is. But fine, if you want to keep this strictly platonic, then I won't fight you on it." Sitting up in an upset manner, the woman shook her head. "I just think that you should know that I like you and when you stop being such a pussy, maybe you'll come to your senses."

Putting his head down, the two-toned haired man closed his eyes shortly after, at war with himself on what to do. "You know insulting me is a turn off but keep it up, that'll make me come to my senses a lot faster," he retorted sarcastically. "I'm not trying to hurt you but this can't happen and that's final."

Throwing her pillow at him in a childish way, Paige crawled to edge of her bed and stood to her feet. "That's final? You're just going to tell me how I'm supposed to feel about you? Where's the fairness in that? I have a guy who is wanting me back and I'm going to tell him no because I thought that maybe something would ensue between us."

"Say we did get involved, what would happen at the end of summer when you went back to where you belong? Then what? Am I supposed to pack up and go with you? Or am I supposed to ask you to stay here? Neither one of us would have the balls to ask that of the other and you know it." He had surprisingly stayed calm, unlike Paige who was completely seething.

"If distance is what you're afraid of then you're an even bigger coward – what's the real reason why you don't want me? Be honest."

"Truthfully, you've been through a lot—I don't know what—and I feel like dating me would only add on to everything – this is for your benefit, Paige. I don't want you to explode because of me. My last girlfriend was just using me to make herself look good. I'm not good at relationships."

"So you're insinuating that I'm a ticking time bomb – the minute something goes wrong I'll just blow up like a grenade? Fuck you and your reasoning. If you ever decide to pull your head out of your ass, you know where to find me. Now get out of my room before I explode."

"Paige—"

"Out!" She screamed then pointed to the door. "Just leave, Seth." She swallowed hard when she watched him exit her room, slamming the door on his way out. How could last night have been so perfect and then this morning be so awful? None of what he said made any sense to her. But one thing was for sure; she was not giving up on this. She was not giving up on him.

They had something; even if she had to get to the root of his problem on her own, she wasn't going to just let him walk away from something that never even started.

* * *

><p>Maybe it had become a habit of hers, but Summer found herself outside of Dean's apartment when she should have been helping her boyfriend pack before he left. Lying to him about needing to run an errand, the blonde's only mission was to find out if Dean and AJ were screwing around.<p>

Watching as the petite woman let herself into his complex, Summer was hot on her trail, rushing in before the door locked and she got stuck outside. She waited at the bottom of the stairwell long enough for AJ to disappear from her sight. After about two minutes, the blonde took off her heels and took the steps one by one, being passed up by a random stranger.

By the time she reached Dean's apartment, she was intrigued to see the guy from the stairs standing outside of his door with a bouquet of roses in his hands. The shaggy-haired man opened the door and shook the guy's hand, letting him come inside.

Trying to stay out of sight, Summer watched as AJ came out of the apartment with the biggest smile on her face, accepting the roses and closing the door behind her. So it turns out that Dean really was trying to help her get over Seth. Feeling foolish in her quest to catch them in some kind of compromising situation, the blonde watched the two go down the stairs, making random conversation about God knows what.

Once it was safe to leave, Summer quietly sauntered over to the stairs but was stopped when an arm reached out and grabbed her. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh… Oh fuck it, I can't lie to save my life. I was trying to prove that you and AJ are sleeping together but when I saw that she had a date, I realized I was wrong. I guess I owe you an apology, huh?"

"It would be nice to hear," he gave a tiny smirk. "You want to come in for a minute?"

"No, I can't. I shouldn't have even come here. What you do is not my business." When he finally let go of her arm, the woman straightened up the dark pink sweater she was wearing. "So Dolph's leaving tonight. I feel like this drift between us is because of me lying to you."

"Summer, you have a boyfriend. It's not that big of a deal. Like I said, I wasn't looking for anything serious. And I don't expect you to dump him because you think that this is true love or whatever type of bullshit you girls believe in nowadays."

A sigh emanated from her mouth – how many times were they going to do this? How many times was Dean going to protest that there was something there between them? How many times was Summer going to brush off his comments and act like she didn't care?

"Give me a reason, Dean. That's all I'm asking. You give me a reason and I'll call it off with Dolph. But if you really mean what you say, stop acting like you're having a battle within yourself to let me go when I was never yours." Taking in the stoic expression on his face, she closed her eyes and breathed out in frustration when he said nothing. "I have to go."

Nodding his head at her, the shaggy-haired man watched as she went down the stairs, hearing the door open, which meant she was gone. Sometimes being the good guy in situations like this really sucked because they never benefited them in the end.

Once she was outside, she rested against the door, hand against her forehead. She had gone there for something completely else and wound up pretty much telling Dean that she'll be with him in a heartbeat. All he had to do was ask. He, not surprisingly, pushed her away and forced her out the door. Two weeks. That was all it took for Summer to completely bare her soul to someone and then have it been for nothing.

Regardless of whether or not Dean wanted to be with her, there was something she had to do for herself. Something that she wasn't sure would go well or not. It was time for her to have her independence back, to find herself again.

It was time to start fresh.

* * *

><p>The car ride had been completely silent as Paige drove – it would only be a matter of minutes until Wade was out of the way. Not that she wasn't appreciative for him being there for her the way he had been, but Seth had backed off right as he showed up. Maybe things would go back to how they were before.<p>

She had never been the kind of girl to pine over a guy like this but Seth was the exception for this; he could come up with whatever excuse there was he, she was very much aware of his attraction for her.

It was weird how Summer and Dolph were completely distant from one another – maybe she finally opened up to him about Dean and he was mad at her, Paige thought that explained it all. But the thing was Dolph didn't look upset… he looked like his usual self. Summer looked content. When they had all hung out right after she got released from the hospital, Summer and Dolph were all over each other; now it's like they had taken two gigantic steps back.

"Okay, I have to ask. How come you guys aren't trying to jump each other's bones right now? It seems like you should since you two won't see each other until August." Paige kept looking in the mirror for their reaction, but when they were completely resolved in their expression, she grew intrigued.

Looking at the blonde man to her left, Summer gave a sweet smile. "We should probably tell them while we have the chance." That sentence left Wade even more bewildered than the driver. "Dolph and I have decided to go our own ways – and it's not a thing of dating other people. It's a thing of being without each other to see what life has to offer us. When we got to college, Dolph and I immediately dated after only knowing each other for a week and we never got the chance to see how well we would fend for ourselves because his friends are my friends and vice versa.

"Don't get me wrong, I love this man sitting next to me, but if someone better comes along then I want him to be able to explore that option without feeling like there's some dark cloud over his head – that cloud being me. We never had the chance to really find out if what we had was purely based on our physical attraction or something deeper. If we're meant to be—and I know this sounds corny as hell—then we'll find some way to be together."

"Wow!" Wade offered from the passenger seat. "That's a really drastic move. But if this is what you both want then I support you guys. You two are definitely going to end up back together before college is over. I believe that. Just like Paige and me," he squeezed her hand in that instant.

This had been a conversation she had been dodging for about a week and him being here wasn't making it any easier on her – how could she tell the guy who just surprised her that all she wanted from him was strictly platonic? It seemed cruel to do so at this time. Proffering him a feign smile, the raven-haired woman met Summer's eyes in the mirror and the latter knew exactly her thoughts on that idea.

"Are you sure you don't want me to hang around for a bit longer?" Wade queried. "I don't have to leave just because Ziggler has to." From the gleam in his eyes, it was obvious that the British man was hoping that she'd ask him to stay. When she didn't answer, he sighed. "Paige, I'm trying to fix what I broke and you've shut me out. When am I going to get in here?" He pointed to her heart.

"It's not that simple – and I don't want to hurt you because you've been here for me this entire week and I'm so grateful, but I think in order to fix this—as you put it—then we need distance. No more surprise visits. Let's just see how this summer goes and when we get back to California we can figure things out then. I have a lot on my plate right now and I don't think it's fair that you want me to drop all that for you. I'd never ask you to do that for me."

"I'm not asking you to drop everything. I'm just asking that you make room for me – I know that you're leery with me, but I've changed. But I respect your wishes and if distance is really what you want, then I'll grant you that."

Obviously getting through to him was going to be a challenge because he was absolutely unrelenting when it came to the prospect of getting back together. But if Paige could just put it off until August, then that would suffice too. "I promise that we can talk about us getting back together when we get back, but we're just talking. It doesn't mean anything."

"Say what you want, but I guarantee you that you and I will wind up together, someway somehow. And I'm not saying that to sound cocky – I'm saying it because I know you; you have no one else pining away for you. It's either be alone until someone else comes along or be with me. Us being together is only inevitable."

Giving him a quick incredulous glare, the raven-haired woman pulled over to the side of the road. "So you're saying that you're my only option – that I'll never find someone else? And make sure you explain yourself good and damn well otherwise you can walk the rest of the way to the airport."

"Look, Paige, I'm not saying it to be mean. You're not very sociable. Everyone is scared of you because you're different. I'm not. That's all I meant."

"Okay, okay, maybe I should interject before the next World War busts out," Dolph spoke up, trying to keep the woman out of harm's way. No matter who said what, he just wanted to make sure that Wade didn't lose his temper with Paige. "Summer, move up front and Wade can sit back here." When he saw how the man in front started to rebuff the suggestion, Dolph cut him off. "I could wrestle you to the ground and force you. What's it going to be?"

Grunting, the British man roughly undid his seatbelt, hopped out of the car and made sure to slam the door, causing Paige to flinch – she was glad, though, to see the side of Wade she hadn't discovered. It gave her a lot of perspective on what kind of person he was.

When the blonde woman took her spot up front, she reached across for her best friend's hand. "Are you okay?" She inquired in a whisper so that Wade wouldn't hear her.

Simply nodding, Paige put her attention back on the road – the sooner she got Wade out of her sight, the sooner things would go back to normal.

* * *

><p>Trying to do the right thing, Seth pulled a couple of duffel bags out from the back of his Tahoe, needing to put some distance between him and Paige – he knew she'd end up finding him sooner rather than later because there was nowhere else he could go. But to hell with it, he needed to do this for himself. He needed time apart to get his feelings under control before they ruined everything.<p>

He had already texted Dean to let him know that he needed to crash on his couch for a couple of weeks at the most, which his friend was already onboard with. It would be nice having some company when he didn't have to work. Besides, he hadn't spent much time with him since Paige and Summer had come into their lives.

Already out to help him with some of his things, the shaggy-haired man patted the Iowa native on the back, welcoming him as best as he could without it coming off as weird. "How is it that two of the hottest bachelors in Davenport end up falling for two women we know we can never be with?"

"Bad luck – Paige truly cares about me but I know she deserves someone a lot better than me. As much as it pains me to say it, maybe someone like Wade is better for her, except without the whole cheating part. He seems willing to give her what I can't."

As they headed up the stairs for Dean's apartment, the shaggy-haired man shrugged nonchalantly. "Summer lied to me and expected me to be okay with it. How can I trust her when she hides stuff? Then she wants to tell me that all I have to do is tell her I want to be with her and she'll end things with Dolph." When they entered the living room, they just tossed his bags down besides the door. "Want a beer, man?"

"No thanks," he yelled to the man who was already halfway in his kitchen, digging around his refrigerator for the drink. "Do you want to be with Summer?"

"I haven't actually thought about that. She dropped by earlier to… check on something," he felt bad for lying to Seth about why Summer was actually there, but had he known about all the time he had been spending with AJ, it would've caused a dispute. This was something he felt was better off buried.

"The women in our lives, man, are very complex. Paige doesn't get that I'm her stepbrother and that it's just so wrong."

"So you being her stepbrother is what's hindering the capability of starting a relationship with her? It has nothing to do with the fact that you're chickening out from something really great because you think she'll screw you over like AJ did?" Dean solicited the truth once he came back into the living room and took a seat on the old, raggedy couch that he needed to get replaced once he had the money to do so.

"She's going back to California anyways. What's the point of starting something up just for it to end abruptly because she has to leave? I'm doing both our hearts a favor by sitting this one out." Pulling out his phone, Seth was surprised to see that Summer had texted him – it was weird since they hadn't really talked much. But the text was one that he couldn't ignore.

_We just dropped off Wade and Dolph – Paige wound up seeing a new side to Wade tonight and she's decided that he's not the guy she wants to be with. She told me about the argument you two had earlier and if you have any intentions on being with her, you better act fast. Paige rarely forgives. I hope you understand what kind of position this puts me in being that Paige is my best friend and I have currently stumbled upon some feelings for that stupid best friend of yours. I want her to be happy. If that's with you, I'm not going to talk her out of it. But if you're just going to continue dicking around with her emotions like they're rubber balls of some sort, then stop with the flirting. You're only hurting yourself. Rant over._

"Well Summer's a ray of sunshine," Seth handed his phone to Dean to read, who wound up smirking at the part where he read about the feelings she harbored for him. "You have your hands full with her."

"That's what I like about her. She challenges me. But alas, if she really wanted to be with me, she'd make it happen."

The two guys carried on in the riveting conversation about the women in their lives, ranting about how they pissed them off sometimes, but also about how much they enjoyed their company when around. It had amazed them how much they could say when they had only known them for such a short amount of time. Neither one was sure how much longer they could avoid them when their desire kept creeping up throughout the cracks of their demeanors.

Someone had to waver. And it most certainly wasn't going to be them.


	14. Night Out Gone Wrong

**A/N: **Thanks again for the continuous support. You guys have no idea how much that means to me.

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><p>While things seemed perfect in Paige's little world, things were far from it. Diane was going to die if they didn't find a donor soon or the treatments failed. Wade proved to be a gigantic ass. And Seth had apparently moved out after the little fight between them, which sent the woman spiraling into a fit of rage upon returning a couple of nights ago to discover his things gone. She trashed what was left of his room.<p>

As she stood behind the counter at _Reigns Records _it was really hard for her to remotely muster a positive attitude when her life had turned to complete shit. Though Roman had complimented her on her work ethics considering she was out for a week with a nasty head injury, it still didn't make her feel any better about herself.

Perhaps it was time to leave since she did her part? As the notion hit her, she immediately dismissed it – there was no way she could leave Diane right now, especially when they had seemed to be bonding a bit. Regardless of anything going on between her and Seth, it seemed pretty trivial in her eyes.

When she went to work this afternoon, after her blonde friend had to coerce her into going, the raven-haired woman drove by Dean's to see that Seth's car was sitting in front. At least she knew where he was in case she needed him – unless he avoiding her on that too; she didn't understand why he be so adamant on staying away from her. She got the point. Loud and clear.

Though he had made such a drastic move of moving in with Dean for the time being, Paige still wasn't a hundred percent convinced that there was nothing between them; but if she needed to drop the whole thing entirely just to get him to come back home, then she was willing to do whatever it took. Thankfully Roman didn't employ a rule about being on cell phones during the work hours like most places, and with that she pulled hers out from her pocket and began typing away at the keys.

You've made your point. I'm asking you to come back for the sake of your father and Diane. Seth, really how much longer do you think you can stay away from everyone just because you don't want to deal with us—which doesn't exist, by the way? I'm going out with Summer tonight to some club about an hour away to celebrate that we're single. Maybe I'll find some dude who actually appreciates a good woman. And if not, at least it'll give me some space to clear my head.

Smiling as she hit the sent button, she didn't bother looking at her phone when it dinged seconds later, knowing good and damn well that it was a reply from Seth. It was mostly nerves as to why she didn't want to check it – he would either plead with her not to go or he would be his typical self and tell her to have fun.

She was pretty sure the latter option would hurt her considerably; how had she managed to get herself into a predicament like this with a complete stranger? It was like something she had seen in a movie a long time ago about two people meeting and instantly having that connection and the woman wound up tracking him down at his own wedding, not realizing he was getting married. But her life was far from a movie and she was far from getting that happy ending she had desired for quite some time.

"It really is good to have you back. This place fell apart without you," the Samoan smiled, passing by her with paperwork in his hand. "Want to help me count the albums to make sure everything is at it should be?"

"Sure. If it's something I'm getting paid for, then I'm all yours," she saluted him, instantly regretting her choice. "I'm sorry, that was so nerdy of me."

"No, it was cute," was all he said before putting his attention back on his job. "So I just need you to make sure that what you count matches up with what's on the paper here. If you find an error, correct it so that it can get fixed."

"Got it." The British woman made to grab the paper but Roman wound up teasing her a bit by holding it above her head. "That's not fair. You're much taller than I am." Jumping up for it, she finally snatched it out of his hands and cradled it against her chest. "So you're that kind of boss, I see. Do you make all your employees work for it like that?"

"Just you. You're fun to mess with." That smirk of his turned into a full-blown smile, one that she had to admit made him even more handsome than when she first saw him. "Now get to work before I fire you."

"Yes, sir." Unable to control a smile of her own, she pivoted around before he could see and put her energy into doing her job; for a Friday morning, it had been a pretty slow day. They had maybe had one customer in the two hours she had been there. It made her wonder how he was able to survive on days like these when hardly anyone bought anything. Plus, no one bought CD's anymore – it was in the day and age when people were downloading their music.

Her interest in her job wavered when her phone kept buzzing around in her pocket. How was she supposed to get anything done when Seth chose that time to want to talk? Although she was extremely curious as to what he had to say, she still opted to doing her job. "I'm shutting you off," she groaned out loud, pressing the power button at the top of her phone.

"Something wrong?" Roman asked with inquisitive eyes.

"It's nothing. Just no one important trying to get a hold of me," she simply responded, trying her best to not give off any vibes about how anxious she was to read the text messages from Seth. The last thing she needed was to talk to Roman—of all people since his relationship with Seth was already rocky as hell—about her and Seth and it somehow getting back to him.

"Clearly it's important otherwise that damn thing wouldn't have been buzzing every ten seconds."

"I've shut it off." The pale woman grew frustrated as time went on. Every time a customer walked in the door, her head would lift as if expecting it to be the Iowa man coming to talk to her. One thing for sure was that no matter how much she tried to rid herself of all thoughts of him, Seth Rollins inadvertently kept creeping back into her brain, ultimately distracting her from doing her job.

After completing the initial task at hand, Roman allowed Paige to go on her break and even that didn't motivate her to turn on her phone real quick to see what Seth had to say. She had decided to make him wait it out for as long as possible until he gave in. That was the new plan.

* * *

><p>Summer was definitely looking forward to going out for the evening with her fellow single girlfriend – they were both gorgeous so it was obvious they were going to get their flirt on with random guys. She waited very impatiently for Paige to finish getting ready, surprised when her pale friend asked her to borrow a seductive blood red dress that was the perfect length to show off her legs and tight in all the right places to accentuate her curves. It went off the shoulders, which was definitely something different for her but Summer couldn't protest it.<p>

The blonde had already received several text messages from both Dean and Seth, both offering to tag along to make sure that nothing serious happened to them. Paige and her had shared a laugh upon reading them.

When the raven-haired woman came out all dolled up, Summer had to do a double take. "Who are you and what have you done with Paige?" Seeing how uncomfortable her friend was, the blonde quickly offered her a compliment, "You look amazing. Those boys tonight better eat their hearts out."

"It's not too much? I know you're supposed to go all out on occasions like this, but I feel like I'm overdoing it." Brushing some lent off her dress, the raven-haired woman took another look at herself in the full-length mirror, making sure everything looked on point. "I have to admit, it's fun acting like a girl at times. But don't get any ideas, Summer. Just because I'm girly tonight doesn't mean that it's going to become an everyday thing."

"I wouldn't want you to change, hon. I just want you to have fun tonight and get that jerk off your mind. Just like I need to get asshole off my mind."

Right as they started going over their plans for the evening, the moment got cut short when both Dean and Seth came busting into Summer's room, slightly winded from apparently running. They instantly recovered when they saw both of the ladies. Dean drank in Summer in a skimpy pink dress that barely covered her chest and was short enough to let everyone know that she was going commando.

"You are not going out like that," he was adamant when he spoke to her.

"Yes, I am. Last time I checked I was single and am capable of making decisions for myself. Now I'm going to call a cab and Paige and I will be out of your hair." She exited the room, making sure to bump Dean on the way out. He quickly followed after her.

When realizing it was just her and him in the room, Paige grabbed her things to leave – if he was so serious in needing time apart, why was he here? Seth, however, got to his feet and made to close the door so that there was nowhere for her to go.

"I thought you were staying away from me? You keeping me locked in a room with you isn't accomplishing that." She folded her arms across her chest, trying to put on her tough demeanor. It was hard to do so looking the way she had.

"I cannot let you go," when he saw the look on her face, he felt a little bit of guilt, but not enough to let her leave. "Paige, come on, is this really what you want? Or is this your way of punishing me for not wanting you?"

"I'll admit that you have big balls, but thinking that this actually has something to do with you is going a little too far. Not everything is about you, Seth. If I want to go out to a club and get wasted, that's because I want to. If I want to hook up with some random guy because it feels right, that's my choice. You have no right trying to dictate what I can and cannot do."

"If you really wanted to go, you would have made me move. You haven't. That means that you'd rather stay trapped in a room with me then go out with Summer."

If it was a challenge he wanted, it was a challenge he was going to get. Slowly approaching him, Paige knew exactly what kind of game he wanted to play; he wanted her to beg. Caressing his face very sweetly, the pale woman exhaled. "I'm sorry," then without thinking it through she used her other hand to punch him in the stomach – not too hard, just hard enough to where he would move out of her way.

Upon opening the door, she stopped briefly in the doorway, turned to make sure he was okay, and when she saw that he was, she walked out. Summer, too, was having a hard time getting out of the house once Ambrose pinned her up against the front door.

"Look, you have five seconds to back away before I do to you what I did to Seth. Do I make myself clear?" The rage in her eyes caused Dean to slowly back away from the blonde. "Thank you." Grabbing her leather jacket off the coat rack, she wrapped it around herself and took a hold of her friend by the hand, leading her out the front door. "Don't wait up."

Moments later their cab was hightailing it down the street much to Dean's dismay. When Seth came barreling down the stairs, he offered a defeated look. "She actually punched me." Taking a look around, he sighed. "They left, didn't they?"

"Looks like we're going to have to cockblock them. Let's go." Grabbing Seth's keys, Dean opted to drive since apparently Paige's punch had wounded his friend more than intended. Once they got situated, Dean floored it and wound up doing eighty the entire time in his quest to make sure Summer didn't do something she'd regret.

* * *

><p>The loud music bumping from the gigantic speakers made it hard for Summer and Paige to dive into a conversation about how their night almost got ruined. So instead, they sat at the bar and enjoyed the drinks being bought for them. Thank God for the carelessness of the bartenders who never even asked for their IDs.<p>

Two handsome men approached them, one in particular that Paige had her eye on. He was tatted all the way on both his arms, even up to his neck. She had to admit that while this wasn't her usual choice in men, tonight was all about not being herself. He fit the profile of what she was looking for. Glancing up at him, Paige gave him a sexy smile, one that she had never done before. But apparently the guy liked it because he instantly sat down next to her and draped an arm over her shoulders.

"I'm Corey," he gave a cocky grin of his own.

"Paige. Do you want to dance?" She was surprised with how bold she was being considering she was not experienced with flirting. Standing to her feet, the woman pulled the guy along with her on the floor, motioning for Summer and the other guy to join them.

As the beat to a new song—one she didn't recognize—came on, Paige found herself being pulled against the handsome stranger, him wrapping his arms around her waist, him slowly grinding up against her. At first she had a hard time falling into rhythm with it, but after a while, she finally just started moving against him, running her fingers through her hair at the same time.

When he pressed his lips against her neck, she trembled from the feeling it gave her – this wasn't a guy who just wanted to share an innocent dance, this was someone who wanted to prey off her innocence. Sensing how tense she was getting, Corey backed away, putting his hands up in surrender. "Let's get you another drink."

Although still uncomfortable with him, at least a drink would further put off his intentions. At the bar, she sucked down another shot of patron, slamming the glass down on the bar top. Right as she went to grab another glass that had been handed to her by Corey, a hand slid it out of her way. Looking up, she rolled her eyes, a little bit intoxicated from all the drinks she had inhaled.

"You're serving a nineteen-year-old in case you failed to check her ID, which I'm sure you did. Are you aware that you could lose your job for you irresponsibility?" The guy lashed out, staring down the perpetrator who was trying to get her vulnerable. Sizing Corey up, Seth didn't flinch at all when the man starting balling his fists.

"Did you and Dean follow us?" Paige teetered on her heels when she stood to her feet, trying to get in between him and Corey. In her eyes, the room was absolutely spinning, turning her stomach to knots. Before she knew it, she was hunched over, vomiting all over Corey's shoes, sending the man away in disgust.

"You can have the bitch," were his parting words.

Holding her hair back, Seth simply rubbed her back to try and soothe her. When it looked like she was at the end of her vomiting fit, he picked her up and carried her outside in order for her to get some fresh air. When he put her down, she went to hit him. "You have no right to bust in like you're the swat team. I had it under control."

"Under control? I had been watching you since you started dancing with that idiot and let me tell you something, you did not have it under control. One way or another, he was going to take you home with him. Can you honestly say that that's something you wanted?" He was angry, upset with her for the way she had acted. Upset because had he not stepped in when he had something serious could have happened. Upset because of how jealous he was.

"Maybe it is. That's none of your business. If I want to sleep with Corey, I will. You do not get to make my decisions." Holding up a finger to him, Paige covered her mouth, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to hold in what was coming up.

Hearing a loud scream, Seth turned to the front door where Dean came out with Summer over his shoulder, trying to fight him. "Put me down. This instant." When he did, she had the same reaction as her friend. "Oh God, I'm gonna be sick." Running to a bush, Summer hurled all over the place.

"She bit me. She actually bit me when I tried to drape an arm around her to escort her out here. Once she did that, it was fair game for me to cause a scene. I'm pretty sure the guy she was dancing with wanted to punch my lights out, but that's for another time."

"Such lightweights," Seth teased when Paige came back over to him, once again trying to pick a fight with him. "You punch like a girl, by the way."

Sobering up fast, the still buzzed woman took offense to the comment and wound up punching him in his face, covering her mouth once he cried out in pain. "Shit, I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that." When it was evident he was hurt, Paige grabbed him long enough to get a good look at the damage she caused. "You're not bleeding and it doesn't look broken."

When he started laughing, she pushed him. "Note to self: Paige is a belligerent drunk." Coming towards her with open arms, he got serious when he saw the way she glared at him with those eyes. "I'm sorry. Let's just hug it out and get you home."

"No, if I hug you then I'm going to feel all sorts of stupid things for you – feelings that I'm trying to force away to please you; and hugging you means I will sniff you and then I'll remember how you smell." Her drunken ramblings were entertaining for both of the guys as they continued listening to why she wouldn't hug him or do anything else affectionate.

Summer, never one for having good timing, came over and put an arm around Dean. "When do you get here? And how'd I wind up out here?" Looking around, she saw Paige staring with empty eyes at the sky, confused as ever. "This is weird!" She slurred the last word, indicating just how drunk she really was.

Dean and Seth gave each other knowing looks and then on the count of three they picked up Paige and Summer and put them into Seth's car, not at all amused by any of this. When both the girls finally passed out in the backseat, they decided to take them back to Dean's because the Iowa native didn't want to wake up his dad and Diane upon coming home.

Getting them up the stairs was surprisingly easy when the girls relented, tripping over their feet on the way. Once inside, Dean and Seth took them to the former's room, put them in bed and tucked them in. Seconds later, they were out like a light.

Standing to his feet, Dean simply shook his head at the sight of them. "What a night, man."


	15. Crossing the Line

**A/N: **Thanks so much for sticking with this. Here's chapter 15!

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><p>The throbbing in her head rendered her too sick to get up out of a bed she didn't recognize. The realization of the possibility of hooking up with someone sank in and she wasn't sure how to feel about that. All she remembered was dancing with Corey and then having another drink with him at the bar. Did she go home with him?<p>

Forcing herself to really think about it, Paige placed the tips of her fingers to her temples, as if trying to will the memories to come to her. Once she rolled over, her answer came to her when she drank in how Seth was asleep in the chair on the other side of the room.

A smile touched her lips at the sight and the memories soon came back to her in flurry. Seth had horned in on her night out with Summer. There was fighting, she recalled, but he also took care of her when she kept throwing her guts up. Groaning in pain, Paige looked around for anything to make it go away.

"How are you feeling?" A groggy Seth asked, stretching his arms above his head.

"Like a bus has hit me." Hunching over, the pale woman grabbed a hold of her stomach, suddenly feeling nauseous again.

Grabbing the bucket he had put by the bed, Seth was quick to once again hold her hair back. It turned out there was nothing left for her to throw up, dry heaving in its place. Falling back onto Dean's bed, the British woman stared with empty eyes at the ceiling above her; it surprisingly distracted her long enough to where Seth could bring her some painkillers and nausea medicine.

"Thank you," she gratefully said, trying her best to act as normal as possible. "And not just for this morning, but for stopping me from making a huge mistake last night. I'm also sorry I punched you, even though you had it coming."

"Paige..." He started to say, but he stopped when she looked at him with hope in her eyes. "I'm just glad you're okay." It was obvious those were not the words he wanted to say.

Tucking some of her hair behind her ears, Paige simply laid against the headboard, waiting for the medicine to kick in. "So where's Summer?"

"Dean and her went to get some breakfast for everyone. She surprisingly wasn't as hung over as you were." Seth laughed. He remembered how Dean had forced Summer to put on a pair of his sweats and one of his T-shirts before they left. The blonde looked like the clothes were swallowing her whole.

"What's so funny?" asked a curious Paige, who was slowly feeling better.

"The two of them. It's so obvious that there are feelings there and they're both too scared to make their move. You have Dean trying to punish Summer for lying to him and you have Summer, who's waiting on Dean to come around. It's a bunch of nonsense, if you look at it."

"They're not the only ones confused," the raven-haired woman commented in a subdued voice, not quiet enough in the end though when Seth gave her a knowing look. "I'm just saying. You and I are pretty much doing the same thing – you know how I feel and you're so damn stubborn about doing the right thing that you're avoiding me. How'd that work out, by the way? You stopped me from hooking up with some guy because you were jealous. Just admit it."

"I stopped you because I didn't want some guy taking advantage of you while you were drunk. It had nothing to do with jealousy." Insistent on putting their short fling to an end, the two-toned hair man continued on, "Paige, you're great, but you've completely taken this little crush of yours out of hand."

"Fine, if that's the way you feel," she pushed the covers off her and got to her feet, grabbing her cell phone in the process. "If my memory serves me correct, I believe Corey gave me his number before you stuck your nose in where it didn't belong." Scrolling down her list of contacts, a devious smile came to her when she saw his name. "He did. Let me just call him to apologize for last night and ask him out again."

Pressing the call button, she listened impatiently for it to ring, disappointed when it reached his voicemail. "Hey Corey, it's Paige from last night. Look, I really want to apologize for what happened and was hoping to make it up to you by asking you out again some time. If you're interested, give me a call back."

Only now remembering she was still in that provocative dress that Summer let her borrow, she was quick to cover herself with her jacket, keeping her eyes away from Seth. If he really meant what he said about trying to keep his distance then why did he look so hurt?

"So that's the game you want to play, Paige?"

"What do you want from me? You say you don't want me but you don't want anyone else to have me either. Make up your mind." Defeated, she put her head down, unsure of what else to do at this point.

Acting on a whim, Seth took a leap of faith, cupped Paige's face in his hands and sweetly pressed his lips against hers. Seconds after realizing what was going on, the woman immediately responded by kissing him back, almost in an urgent manner, getting way too into it. When Paige started to reach for the hem of his shirt, Seth instantaneously took a step back, ending their kiss.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" He pushed her hands away. "I shouldn't have done that. Fuck!" He kicked Dean's bed in frustration. "I'm sorry. God, I'm an idiot. I just completely… fuck!" Covering his face with his hands, he let out a groan. "We just crossed a line that we can't undo."

"What if I don't want to undo it? Would you look at me, Seth?" Paige, desperate for something, tried her hardest to reach out to him to no avail. Pinching the bridge of her nose, the woman tried digesting what the hell had just happened and what the hell was happening now. "Stop pushing me away. Grow some balls and talk to me, damn it!"

"I have to go. This was a mistake, Paige." Those were his parting words as he exited Dean's room, leaving the door open on his way out. She heard him grab his keys to his car, letting her know that he was once again bailing on her.

Pressing a hand to her forehead, Paige emitted a sigh – it was clear that their relationship was getting to the point where it was more than either of them could handle. When push came to shove, Seth ran from it. Worried about what exactly this meant, the woman perched herself at the edge of the bed, trying her best to convince herself that he just freaked out and that he would come back.

But who was she kidding? Seth wasn't coming back. He had made that clear from the get-go.

_**-x-**_

She had spent the entire afternoon searching for her stepbrother, to try to talk to him; but when he was nowhere to be found, she gave up. Instead, she found herself in her room, packing up her things. She had done her part and it was obvious that she overstayed her welcome. It was time to head back to California or maybe somewhere else where no one else could find her.

Gathering up all of her belongings, the woman got interrupted when a knock on her door scared her. "What are you doing, Paige?"

"This isn't working out, Diane. I'm sorry. I know I had intended to spend the summer here, but it's not a good idea if I stay." For the first time since packing up her things, a twinge of guilt hit her – none of this was Diane's fault and Paige felt bad for her getting punished for Seth's stupid behavior. But she had to go before things got even worse.

"Can you stop long enough to tell me why? Paige, I'd really like it if you stayed." Coming further into the room, Diane took a seat in the chair on the opposite side of the room, the same chair that Seth had been sitting in about a week ago when Wade was there. Everything in her room reminded her of him. That was why she needed to go. But how could she explain that to her mother?

"It's all fucked up. I don't know what I expected out of this, I mean really. So, he kissed me. Did I think he'd want to jump into a relationship with me?" Her random ramblings threw Diane – she had no idea what her daughter was talking about.

Pacing back and forth, Paige kept muttering under her breath. "Diane… I need you to understand that me leaving has nothing to do with you – I want to stay here, get to know you, but… everything is so complicated right now."

"My darling, please take a seat and talk to me about what's going on. Maybe I can help – I think I owe you that," she was desperate to get her daughter to stay. Plus, she really wanted to be there for her when all was said and done. "Does this have to do with Seth?" When Paige's head deflated, Diane shook hers and offered a light smile. "You guys kissed, I'm going to assume. What happened?"

"Summer and I went out last night and got a little too wasted," she started but paused when she saw the look on her birth mother's face, "I'm a rebellious teenager, you'll learn that fast. Anyway, I met this guy named Corey and we were having fun, but Seth and Dean showed up and saved the two of us from making a huge mistake. Seth took care of me all night. When I woke up earlier, he was there. Then that's where it got weird with us.

"We started talking about how Dean and Summer like each other but they're too scared to make a move – when I mentioned that they weren't the only ones, Seth started giving me this speech about him and I never happening. I wound up calling Corey to apologize for last night and to ask him out because I was pissed at that idiot. He got jealous. And finally he kissed me. Which I've been wanting for the last couple of weeks."

Finally, Paige wore herself down and wound up taking a seat on her bed, curling her leg underneath her; this whole thing had gotten completely out of hand. "What's wrong with me? I guess I'm not crazy like his ex girlfriend. Maybe that's the kind of girl he should be with." This whole sulking thing was a brand new territory for her. Never in her life had she been so down on her luck because of a guy.

"Let me assure you that there is nothing wrong with you – Seth's being a guy. He likes you, I know it. He looks at you the same way I look at his father. I think the thing with AJ really ruined him. I'm sure if you give him space, he'll come around."

"I've given him space. He moved in with Dean temporarily to try to rid these feelings – he thinks because he's my stepbrother that it's a big sin. It's not like we're even related."

"Just trust me when I say that he'll come around – and especially with you, Seth will; you're getting under his skin that's why he's running scared. I've raised him for quite a while and I can tell you that every time he's liked a girl, he's always been an idiot. He's being a big idiot with you."

Smiling, Paige replied, "Okay, I'll give it a little more time; I won't leave. Thank you, Mom." She hadn't meant for that word to come out of her mouth, but when it did and it brought tears of joy to Diane, she too felt a little choked up. They had come so far in such a little amount of time.

Not wanting to ruin what had just happened, Diane simply nodded her head before leaving her daughter alone to figure out what came next – at least some things seemed to be on the mend.

_**-x-**_

_How could I be so stupid? _

That was the question bouncing around in Seth's head as he pulled back up to Dean's apartment – there was nowhere else he could go. After walking out on Paige earlier, he just wound up driving around the town, reassessing what he had done a couple of hours ago.

_Why did I kiss her? What was I thinking?_

Again, endless questions plagued him when he took his keys out of the ignition and just stayed seated in the driver's seat – he wasn't sure if Paige was still there, waiting for him to return; a part of him hoped she was. But then there was the stubborn part that wished she had left so that he didn't have to face her.

After much hesitation and much inner turmoil, the Iowa man slowly got out of his vehicle, staring up at the many windows of the complex. What if Paige was staring out one of those, just waiting? He always believed in the motto "you'll never know unless you find out" and so with both feet, he sauntered inside, trying to stay quiet on his way up just in case he changed his mind.

But once he found his speed, he couldn't turn around now, not when he was shoving his key into the lock and letting himself in to find Dean and Summer sitting on the couch – when they greeted him with smiles and curious glares, he got flummoxed. That meant that Paige hadn't stuck around long enough to tell them what had happened between them—about the best kiss in the entire world taking place.

"Where's Paige?" Summer sat up straight on the couch, suddenly losing interest in what she had been watching on TV.

"I don't want to talk about it," Seth replied, making his way into the kitchen with Summer and Dean on his trail. Once he caught onto that fact, he placed his hands on the counter and blew air out of his mouth. "I fucking kissed her."

"You did what?!" Summer grabbed a dishtowel hanging up not too far away and started hitting him with it, trying to defend her friend's honor. "Why? Why would you do that to her if you have no intention of being anything more with her?" Once again, she started attacking him with the towel, Dean soon having to step in between the two of them, wrapping his arms around the blonde's waist to keep her back.

Turning around abruptly, Seth shook his head. "It just happened. It's not like I planned it. I wish that I hadn't of done that because now everything is going to change."

Fighting against Dean's grip, the blonde dug her nails in his arms and lunged at Seth again. "You know how fragile she is." Pressing the tips of her fingers against her temples, the blonde took a deep breath. "If you know how a girl feels about you, you don't kiss her. Were you dropped on your head as a baby or something? I'm really trying to grasp this entire scenario." Taking her phone out of the pocket of the sweats Dean had lent her, she started tapping away on the buttons, sending a message to Paige.

_Seth's here – he told us what happened. I'm not sure if this is something you want to stop by for, to try to mend these broken fences. I'm just letting you know he's back since he apparently disappeared on you._

Within seconds, her phone dinged with this respond: _Tell him I said to go fuck himself. He's made his feelings perfectly clear; if he really wants to stay away from me, I'll help him out by staying away from him too. I've got to go unpack. I almost left because of him. I'll talk to you whenever you decide to come home._

"Well Paige hates you," the blonde said, holding her phone up to Seth's face to show him the text message. When she took her phone away from him, she shoved it back into her pocket before turning to Dean, as if trying to will him to say something since he had been relatively silent.

"She was going to leave because of me?" The realization had hit him that his reaction was uncalled for. Closing his eyes, he took a brief second to try to collect his bearings. This was not his intention when he told her it was a mistake; truth be told, their kiss didn't feel like a mistake. It was just a stupid thing to say because he had panicked.

"So why did you kiss her, man? You haven't exactly answered that little question." Dean finally chimed in on the situation, trying to refrain Summer from assailing his friend.

"We were fighting about us. And when I told her that I didn't want to explore that option, she called Corey. One thing led to another and… I kissed her. Believe me, had she not reached to take my shirt off, I probably wouldn't have backed out as fast as I had." The flashbacks of their intimate moment from earlier came back to him and he couldn't help but smile as he relived it.

"She was pretty much initiating sex and you bailed on her. The poor girl's traumatized as it is and now someone that she wants to be with rejects her. Seth," Summer sighed, finally calming down, "I know you mean well… At least I think you do anyways. With Paige, you need to be careful. She's been through a lot and once you cross her, it's hard to get back in her good graces. Look at her and her parents."

"You think I don't know that? Do you know how hard it is wrestling with these feelings? Paige scares the living shit out of me. But I'm also her stepbrother and that's a line I don't want to cross. I don't care if we're not blood, we're still family."

Frustrated, the blonde looked at Dean with sad eyes. "Would you please talk some sense into him? I'm gonna go talk to Paige and check on her." Looking down at her clothes, she smiled. "I'll make sure to return these to you clean."

"Keep them. They look better on you," he gave her a smirk, one that almost made her heart stop.

Nodding her head, she gave one last warning stare to Seth before departing. When she was gone, Dean folded his arms, stubborn as ever. "So that's it? You're done with Paige then?"

"You can't be finish with someone when you never started." Seth grabbed a beer from Dean's fridge and then made his way towards the living room, taking a seat on the couch he had been sleeping on.

"You are crazy – Paige is great and she's pretty much you, except she has a vagina. What's the problem? And be honest with me. Summer's not here so you don't have to worry about this getting back to Paige." Dean grabbed the remote out of Seth's hand before he could turn it on to completely shut down on the conversation like he usually did.

"How many times do I have to say it? She's my stepsister. You don't see anything gross about that?"

"I'll tell you what I see. You're too big of a chicken shit to actually go for something that might make you happy – that's what you do, Seth. You push anyone and everything away from you once you get a semblance of a normal life. You're punishing yourself for Lizzy's death when you shouldn't."

"Keep her out of this, man."

"I'm calling it like I see it. See, you're scared of Paige – you didn't lie about that – but you're more scared of letting go of the pain that's kept you alive for these last couple of years. Rollins, it is time to let go. It doesn't mean you stop caring. It just means that you're making the effort to heal. It also means having to live a life filled with happiness instead of carrying that dark cloud around with you."

"Can you leave me alone now? You've said everything that you've needed to say. This conversation is over." And just like that he had done exactly what Dean had said he would – he shut down entirely. That's the habit he had succumbed to over the years.

"Okay." Dean gave up. If Seth didn't want to talk, then he couldn't necessarily make him. Texting Summer to let her know that their plan backfired, the shaggy-haired man did the only thing he could do – take a seat beside his friend, hoping that he'd come around eventually.


End file.
